Nothing Lasts Forever
by pepperony42
Summary: "Tony, I..." She took a deep breath, now trying to hold the crying. "I think we should take a break.". Starting with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fall, going through the age of Ultron and the Civil War, and ending with the latest events in Spider-Man: Homecoming, "Nothing Lasts Forever" reports the story of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts' relationship thru the past years.
1. Chapter 1

Pepper Potts walked quietly, alongside her security chief, through the Stark Industries parking lot. It was late, and all she could thought was about get home, take out her high heels and relax in the tub... After call Tony and find out if he would be coming back from New York in time for dinner, of course.

Everything was running smoothly, and they were almost coming to the CEO's parking spot, where the car was waiting for them. When then a van emerged and stopped dangerously close to them, than men in black immobilized the security guard and threw the woman inside, leaving urgently afterwards.

"Happy!" She cried out in panic; but the vehicle was far away already.

"He's fine... Don't worry, we will not do any harm. We are here to help." A dark-haired woman in bulletproof clothing told her. "You'd better wear it". She said, throwing her a vest.

"I'm sorry...do I know you?" The redhead asked, obeying it immediately.

"No, and all you need to know is that I work for S.H.I.E.L.D." She reached up and Pepper hesitated before squeezing her. "We're taking you to a hiding place."

"Why are you hiding me?" What are you hiding me from? Where's Tony?"

"He is fine! Just as you will be." The agent tried to reassure her. "Stark asked us to hide you if anything happened."

"What happened?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed. Hydra was living in our shadows all this time. There's a war going on in D.C right now." The agent handed her a tablet displaying more information. "But Stark is fine."

"Oh my God..." Pepper was horrified by the images. Helicarriers falling from the sky, buildings being destroyed, people dying...total chaos.

...

Four days later, the woman returned home safely, but didn't find Tony. The man traveled from corner to corner, working hard. It was rare when he was at home, let alone doing something other than work.

And so weeks went by...

At that time, Maria Hill was hired by Stark Industries, to be hide from intelligence companies, which would love to get rid of her. But not even the biggest of them would have the strength to face Tony's army of lawyers, so the woman was safe. She was now Pepper's personal assistant. But as Black Widow revealed every S.H.I.E.L.D. secret in the incident in Washington, everyone now knew that Hill was an agent; And the woman had to give dozens of explanations:

"How was it?" Pepper asked worriedly, as soon as Maria answered the call, while leaving the Congress "Well, at least now they'll leave you alone... Maria? Are you there?" She worried about the sudden silence on the other side of the line. "How did he disappear? Maria, get out of there!"

Then Hill hung up, promising to call her back in ten minutes.

Great. Like if it weren't enough be worried all the time about Tony under risk of being killed out there, now she would also be worried all the time about Maria under risk of being killed out there.

She needed normal friends.

But to her relief, Hill was more responsible and punctual than Tony. So 10 minutes later, as matched, her cell phone rang and she received reassuring news:

"A partner of mine ended with the Russians. Now we are leaving on a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission"

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes. But maybe I won't be in time for the 8:00 am meeting with the French, boss."

"Don't worry about it. And when you're done, call me and we go out. I can accompany you on the drink, but I'm gonna refuse the lobotomy."

"Deal." Maria laughed. "Good night, Pepper."

"Good night. Work hard." She said and ended the call. Then stared at the home screen of her cell phone:

The clock was ticking 0:57 and the wallpaper showed her kissing Tony's cheek with closed eyes, while the man looked at the camera in a seductive way, in that selfie taken days before S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fall.

The woman sighed and blocked the screen. She drank the rest of her wine and set the glass down on the kitchen counter. And then she went to the garage for another daily battle, trying to get her boyfriend out of there.

Tony had been working hard since he heard about the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. He had not slept or bathed in days, couldn't remember when he last had a decent meal, and was so on alert that almost attacked the woman when she passed through the door.

"Oh... it's you." He said tiredly, then lowered his arm, before turning back his atenttion to the monitors. The lights of the thrusters in his hands were oscillating, proving his high level of stress.

"J.A.R.V.I.S. announced my arrival."

"Did he? I didn't hear that." He sighed when he felt her sweet perfume enter his nostrils and delicate hands started to massage his shoulders.

"Did you sleep last week?"

"I don't have time for this." He let out a moan of relief, thanks to the massage.

"You should have some rest... take a shower, eat something... get some sleep..."

"I still have a lot of work to do."

"Please..." she begged sweetly, resting her head on his shoulder and sliding her hands to his chest, where the arc reactor used to be. Then Tony sighed, before giving in.

That day he did what she asked, but that rarely repeated. Pepper lost count of the times she'd practically begged him to come up for dinner, take a shower, spend some time with her, or join her in bed. Over time the requests became quarrels, and it was not many nights that she slept without being sad or angry with him.

Relaxed moments became increasingly rare. And when they finally happened, there was always something to stop them:

Pepper was in the Avengers Tower's living room, sitting on the couch and typing nonstop on her laptop, when the elevator doors opened and Tony stepped inside.

"Hi, Honey". He said when got closer to her.

"Hi." She felt a cold kiss on her cheek, then took her eyes off the screen and checked to see if he had any ice cream pot in hands. "What do you have there?"

"Pistachio, carrot, vanilla with cookies and kiwi syrup. Zero sugar, gluten and lactose."

"Exotic..." She took the pot from his hand and tasted the ice cream, before Tony caught it back.

"What are you doing?" He asked sitting down beside her.

"Checking the progress of the Stark Tower in Abu Dhabi."

"When you go check it in person, I'll go with you. We need a little escape." He brought some ice cream to his mouth. "Imagine this: You. Me. Abu Dhabi. No clothes..." He leaned over and began to kiss and bite her neck. "Tempting, hum?"

"This is a work travel and you're not going to mess this up, Mr. Stark..."

"And since when I mess things up?" The man closed the notebook and threw it to the corner of the sofa.

"You're messing it up right now!" She knew the right thing to do was to get away, but deep down she didn't want it at all.

"Am I...?" He reached for her lips, but the woman kept talking during the kisses.

"...You...are! I was... working... and then you came with this..."

"Stark!" Steve Rogers came into the room, making the couple get apart. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright..."

"What do you want?" They said at the same time. Tony in a very arrogant way.

"Agent Hill found Strucker's whereabouts. We're gonna leave immediately."

"I'll meet you on the way."

"Now." The captain was authoritarian, then politely said goodbye to the woman, before leave the room.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., prepare the jet. I'm going back to Los Angeles." Pepper picked up the notebook and stood up.

"The jet's ready."

"Stay..." Tony begged, holding her by the waist with his free hand.

"You have work to do. And besides, I have some commitments in the company, so..." She took the ice cream from his hand. "Be careful, okay?" She asked and kissed him.

"I love you."

"I love you too."


	2. Chapter 2

It was late at night when the first news began to arrive.

Pepper was quietly working at the Stark mansion's office. The only sounds in the room were coming from the keyboard and the mouse, since she was alone. So when the television turned on unexpectedly on a news channel, the woman became scared.

And she went even more scared with what she saw next:

"We are live here at Sokovia, very close to the place where, at this very moment, the Avengers are waging a battle!" The local journalist pointed at the great mountain covered with trees and snow behind her. "We don't know who they're fighting against, or what is the reason of it, and we're not allowed to get any closer to the place, but I'm gonna ask our cameraman to zoom in, so we can try to capture something..."

Then it was possible to see some shaking trees, something flying in the sky (Tony) and, sometimes, a huge figure jumping (The Hulk).

Until, out of nowhere, a huge explosion happened where the heroes were, and fire and smoke rose in the sky.

"Get down! Get Down!" The journalist shouted In the midst of chaos. People ran in all directions, fearing for their lives. Sounds of shots seemed closer and closer. "We're being attacked! We are…"

Then the signal went off.

After watching that, Pepper couldn't sleep a wink. So she spent the night in clear, searching for informations about the recent events in Sokovia. And in the next morning, that was all people talked about in the streets and media.

Videos of people being attacked and the Iron Legion containing the situation were everywhere. But there were also a lot of reports of violent demonstrations against the Avengers, in which not even Tony's metal army went out unharmed. The robots were attacked with sticks, stones, and everything that people found ahead.

In the face of all this, the woman was only able to contact Tony by night; To her utter despair, but relief at the end:

"Then I retrieved the scepter and we returned home." He hid the part in which he was attacked by the "witch" that made him suffer a hallucination, exploring one of his greatest fears. "It's a nice place, Sokovia. We could go there someday."

"Even because people there don't hate you at all..."

"Details..." Tony shrugged. "What are you doing?"

"Working. And hoping to have a good night of sleep today. As usual, I haven't had any sleep since you went out on mission..." She sighed. "Is everyone okay?'

"Yeah. We're in one piece. Barton was hit, but Dr. Cho has already solved the problem."

"And when are you coming home?"

"Soon."

"Soon before or after the Saturday party?" Pepper asked, then the man raised his eyebrows. "I control every cent you spend, Mr. Stark. You should already know that you can't hide anything from me."

"I know that." Tony laughed. "It's going to be a farewell party for the Goldilocks. You should come."

"Thank you, but I pass." She replied politely, not even trying to hide her clear unwillingness to hear him having another argument with the thunder god, about who has the most successful girlfriend. "Send my farewells to Thor."

"Okay then..." He scratched the back of his neck, exhausted.

"I'll try to get some sleep. You should do the same."

"You got it." He smiled, but she knew he was lying. Even so, she didn't argue.

"Good night, Tony."

"Good night. Have a dream with me!" The man said playfully. And Pepper was wrapping up the video call, when she heard Bruce Banner's voice in the background:

"I think I figured out where we went wrong!"

...

The next few days dragged on, but the weekend had finally arrived.

Sunday, in the middle of the night, Pepper woke up with a fright. But she couldn't remember if she was having a nightmare.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., what time is it?" She asked, but received no answers. "J.A.R.V.I.S.? J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

Silence.

Tony should be doing an update in the middle of the night. It wouldn't be the first time.

She turned on the bedside lamp and checked the starkwatch she forgot to take off before sleep. It was 2:42 in the morning. And she wasn't sleepy at all.

So she got up and went to the kitchen, where prepared to herself a cup of very hot chamomile tea. And she was already ending to drink it, when heard a strange noise coming from the living room. And she knew full well that it wasn't Tony.

She tried to call the security guards. She tried to call Iron Man. She tried to call anyone who was trustworthy, since Hydra was infiltrade in everything. She tried to get help by any means of communication. But the kitchen phone was mute, and not even the emergency functions of J.A.R.V.I.S. were working. She was alone.

But not defenceless.

Thinking about it, she looked at her wrist and mentally thanked herself for not having taken the watch off. Wristwatch that, in the second that was triggered, turned into a metal glove with a non-lethal propeller of light and sound.

Then with one hand raised, ready to shoot, and another holding a frying pan as a shield, she went out the kitchen door and sneaked around the garden, planning to reach the garage, where she would get a car and escape.

But she wasn't the only one to think that:

"Ms. Potts?" A male voice called out. "We know you're there! You can get out from behind the bushes, we're the good guys!"

"Who are you?" She asked without leaving the place. All she could think was how to get out of there alive.

"Agents Brown and Dalton, of S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

"How do I know you're not of Hydra!?"

"Do you really think that if we were of Hydra, you would be alive? If we could get through the gate, of course. Security here is good. Nor does it seem that the "butler" is down."

"We learned a lot after our house was destroyed, but it seems that wasn't enough! How did you guys get in here?"

"Accompanied by a friend!"

"What friend?" She asked, then stood up when heard the familiar voice:

"She's not up there! She must have run away from the... Pepper! Have you met Hill's friends yet? They're nice, huh?" Said Rhodes, joining them. "You can put the gun down, everything will be fine." He requested, but the woman stood with her hand raised, ready to shoot. She looked him in the eyes, checking if he was telling the truth. Then, finally, she lowered her arm very slowly, relaxing her posture.

"Sorry about that. With all this things happening, and now J.A.R.V.I.S. is down, I..."

"It's ok, you did the right thing. You saw that something was strange and ran away. Now you can leave this to the experts, they will help you." He told her, then received a hug. "Everything's gonna be okay..." He said, stroking her back.

"What happened?" She asked, pulling a bit away, so she could see her friend's face.

"Tony and Banner have done shit and you're gonna have to leave the town for a while." He tried to warm her arm. "You're cold. Wear something warm and let's go, I explain everything on the way."


	3. Chapter 3

"...And now he's loose around." Rhodes finished the story. Then Pepper sighed, with her eyes closed and her hand on her forehead. "Are you alright?"  
"Yeah. I'm just sad. And really tired..." She replied, looking at him again.  
"Can you tell me what you know about Ultron?" Hill asked, through a screen of the Quinjet.  
"I know Tony had the idea of creating this artificial intelligence, that would protect the planet 24 hours a day and not be deactivated until the second order, unlike the Iron Legion. It would watch Earth all the time, and when there was any problem, would solve it. This would reduce the Avengers workload, and they'd become involved only in extreme cases. It's called Ultron because of a car we bought a few years ago."  
"So this idea has been around for a long time?"  
"Yes. But the project never went forward, because I practically begged Tony not to create that. Shortly thereafter, he and Dr. Banner claimed not to find something they needed to finished it; Then everything has been archived. I thought...that the Ultron project would be nothing but a tale.  
"It's more like a nightmare..." Maria commented after hissing.  
"Just tell me they were not playing with alien technology again..." Pepper begged, staring at Rhodes.

"I'm sorry, but I can't say that." She moaned and banged her head on the back of the chair after listening her friend's words.

"And there in the Tower... Someone was injured?"

Then Hill went silent and Rhodes opened and closed his mouth several times, not knowing what to say.

"Did someone die?" Pepper panicked, alternating looks between the two, encouraging them to continue.

"Not anyone...but something." Rhodes was the first to open the beak.  
"What ..." She narrowed her eyes, then widened them. "James... J.A.R.V.I.S. is not being updated, is it?"  
"I'm sorry."  
"Oh my God..." The woman put her hand in front of her mouth, shocked by the news.  
She didn't know that things could get even worse.

…

20 hours later ...  
 _"We are where a few minutes ago the billionaire Tony Stark, the Iron Man, and scientist Bruce Banner, better known as the Hulk, were waging a " battle of giants!" A building was even toppled, but according to the information we got, there were no people on the premises. There was a lot of destruction downtown; People are scared, looking for friends and family in the midst of all the chaos. There's no official number of hurt or dead people, but the estimate is..."_  
"Mute." Pepper gave the command, not being able to keep hearing the news. Then she continued to drink her coffee while just stared at the images on tv, which wasn't less painful.  
"A little latte to drink this, don't you think?" She heard a familiar voice, then turned her face toward, so she could see the owner of that. "Good night, boss." Maria Hill greeted her.

...

"...There are robbing cases committed by metal men in robotics laboratories, depots of weapons and jet propellers all around the world." Hill explained, while Pepper was reading the data and the news saved in a starkpad, once there was no internet in the hiding place.  
"Were there any deaths?" She asked in terror.  
"Only those who faced the machines. Most civilians were found alive, but somewhat disturbed. They reported having had visions of their worst fears, of old memories, or of having seen something moving like a flash. Work of the weirdos that you've seen in the pictures just now."  
"Send the Stark Foundation..."  
"They're there. Not only in Africa, but everywhere."  
"I want to buy the building they knocked over."  
"Are you going to built a Tower there? Building something that reminds Tony Stark in a place that got destroyed thanks to him may not be a good idea..."  
"I agree." Pepper took a sip of his coffee after said it. "I haven't decided what I'm gonna do yet. At the moment, I just want the current owner not to suffer damages."  
"I'll solve this as soon as possible. Now, about the Avengers Tower...should I send a staff for reform?"  
"Not yet." The redhead replied, not taking her eyes off the drink in her cup. "Do you think Ultron and his henchmen will try to plunder the Stark Industries? It would be easy for him to break into the system, wouldn't be?"  
"Security has been strengthened, but Ultron is not even trying. He must be too busy with his evil plan, whatever it is. All Stark Industries headquarters are untouched, as are all your properties, bank accounts, your mother, and you."  
"But Tony and the Avengers are under attack in every possible way."  
"That's what happens when you create something like that." Hill countered. "They're also blaming them for all the looting, after all, it's not anyone who has an army of robots at their disposal. And after what happened in Africa, it's only a matter of time before they send a arrest warrant to Banner."  
"Prepare the lawyers. Once this is over, we'll have another bombardment of processes." Pepper drank the rest of the coffee, and then order another one.  
That would be a long night...

…

The next day they all had a "slack", as Ultron didn't show up; Just like the Avengers, who hid to get recovered after getting beaten in Africa.  
Almost 48 hours after her arrival, Maria was sitting in front of the kitchen counter and talking to Pepper, while enjoying an expensive wine. Until an agent came in and whispered something in her ear, making her to drop her glass and rise abruptly:

"Fury is calling me."  
"I thought he was no longer the director." Pepper commented, lowering her glass.  
"He's not. But all help is welcome if we want to turn that thing into scrap metal."  
"Good luck. And be careful." She stared at her friend with the same concern she always stares to Tony every time he leaves.  
"Don't worry, I'll make sure your boyfriend and Banner will never let alone in the same room again." Hill took an apology look from her boss, and drank the rest of the wine, before disappearing from sight.

…

Late in the afternoon, news from Seoul arrived:

TV channels conveyed a battle between Ultron and Captain America, at the top of a truck. At one point, the two of them stormed into a train wagon, and the truck headed toward a barrier made by police officers, who were waiting for him with weapons in their hands, but it didn't help at all. Two of Ultron's robotic henchmen carried the vehicle into the air, and beyond the sight of the humans.  
Something very important, and very dangerous, should be inside that truck.  
Meanwhile, the battle on the train was still on. Until there was an explosion, and the vehicle accelerated, crossing the end of the line and then invading the streets, putting dozens of lives at risk.  
That's when something incredible happened:  
The people on the way of the runaway train were pushed aside by something too quick to be seeing, and a red light spread across the wagon, which began to brake, until it finally stopped.  
They could only be the improved siblings.  
Had the Avengers won allies?

Pepper spent the rest of the day thinking about it. Until the moment when the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. suddenly invaded the room and stole her attention:

"I'm afraid these are my last words; so I must say goodbye, Miss. Potts. I may not be able to have feelings, but it was a pleasure to serve you."  
"What? J.A.R.V.I.S.!" She called out, don't understanding what was happening.

But it was already too late.


	4. Chapter 4

J.A.R.V.I.S. was gone. And this time it seemed to be forever.

Pepper didn't know what to say, didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that she was sad, after all, J.A.R.V.I.S. was with her all the time. He was part of the family. And now he was gone.

The woman barely had time to process the recent information, because soon she got surprised again. But this time, by an unknown female voice:

"Good afternoon. Systems operating normally. Internet still blocked. Location invisible to radars. May I help you?"

…

Then Friday and Pepper were duly introduced, and the new program began to update the woman about the recent events. And so hours passed, until news from Sokovia began to come:

It was early morning. The city should be deserted. But a mass evacuation was happening.

All the locals and tourists were fleeing the city, desperate, scared, not understanding what was happening. Some of them even seemed to be under hypnotic effect. Friday explained that Wanda Maximoff was the responsible for that, confirming what Pepper thought when she watched the news from Seoul.

The exits were congested. Some people gave up and abandoned the vehicles, following the rest of the journey on foot. And on the top of a car, Captain America was guiding them to leave without panic.

A war was about to happen. And as if to prove everyone's thinking, an army of droids came out of nowhere and began to attack. Then the live broadcast on tv went off.

Minutes later, finally some news:

"The Internet access is once again allowed. Ultron will no longer be able to use or transport himself through it."

"But he hasn't been defeated yet."

"No, ma'am."

"Make a search. Keyword: Sokovia." The woman ordered, and the results began to appear on the TV in front of her. Photos, videos, calls for help, and even selfies with Ultron's army carcasses.

It was with the help of the internet that she heard that Sokovia was now above ground, rising higher and higher. There were pictures of those who watched everything in the middle of the war zone, and who managed to escape in time. Everyone was terrified, thinking that this would be the end.

Until there was a drop of hope and happiness, when a helicarrier from S.H.I.E.L.D. appeared in the clouds. Civilians could get out of that place.

But there was still Ultron. And the fact that Sokovia had had not stop going up.

"Friday, in case the city falls..."

"It is already high enough to cause total extinction." The program's answer let Pepper in total panic.

"Call Tony."

"He's busy..."

"Call Tony!"

"Call in progress."

Then the woman waited uneasily, running to the notebook and trying to get in touch with the people she loved. But none of them answered.

"Mr. Stark is not answering the calls." Friday informed her. And in that second, Pepper's clock emitted a small hologram with a message:

"I love you."

And she answered:

"I love you too."

Then seconds later her watch lit again, displaying what would probably be Tony's last words to her. And these words were:

"I'm sorry."

...

So she just stood there. Agonized. And being watched by agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who on the outside looked like statues, but in the inside they were fearing for their lives and their friends and family's.

Everyone wanted to say goodbye to the loved ones. The phones and the internet were overloaded, and many people, including Pepper, were unable to get in touch with their families and friends.

So, all that remained was to wait for the end...

Which fortunately did not come.

Friday began to show stories that filled the room. Sokovia was falling with full force, about to cause the extinction of the entire Earth, when it was blown up and left in thousands of pieces, which fell without causing further damage, thanks to Thor and Iron Man.

People who lived nearby felt tremors, but nothing compared to what might have happened.

There were reports that the War Machine and something... red (that wasn't Stark) destroyed the droids that attacked the helicarrier and the ships in which civilians escaped.

A strong light was seen in distance, coming from the middle of the forest, but no one knew what it was.

It was the end. But not of the inhabitants of Earth.

It was the end of the Age of Ultron.


	5. Chapter 5

Monday. Day to come back to everyday life.

Pepper woke up with Friday giving her some information about the weather, the calendar, and the main headlines of the day, which, obviously, boiled down to the latest events involving the Avengers. The huge window of the master suite of the Stark mansion revealed another beautiful and peaceful morning in Los Angeles, as if the world were not in complete chaos.

The woman noticed that Tony wasn't by her side, and she didn't get surprised. He was probably in New York, she had no idea. The last time they spoke was through the text messages they exchanged two days ago. And she avoided thinking about it as she getting up and putting on a robe, before going downstairs to have breakfast.

At 8:45 she came to Stark Industries. Just like in the mansion, all the vehicles' entrances were full of journalists and protesters looking for clarifications. They didn't see the woman behind the window of the limousine, but the woman could look at every each face and poster full of nonconformity and/or hate.

Stark employees were not at their usual pace. Everyone was still in shock, after all, almost all there, and everyone on Earth, were not killed.

Pepper spent much of the day stuck in the CEO office, on a conference call with Maria Hill. They talked about what to say to the press about Ultron; about the Stark Foundation, which was operating around Sokovia (which was now a huge hole), helping anyone with what it needed; about what they would do in the future...

Until they started talking about the building in Africa that Tony and Banner knocked over (and was recently purchased by Stark Industries). Then Pepper thought worriedly about his friend:

"You have no clue of his whereabouts?" She asked, and Maria denied it.

"While the Quinjet's stealth mode is operating, it's impossible to find him. And, probably, this is exactly what he wants." She answered; then received a message, which Pepper couldn't read. "The press conference was confirmed. 17:00. Auditorium B. Avengers Tower, New York. Romanoff confirmed her presence."

"Great. So, I guess that will be all. I see you later."

"See ya." Hill hung up.

"Bambi, I'm going to New York in an hour. You and Happy come with me." Pepper called from the intercom.

"Yes, Ms. Potts."

"Tell Happy to get the car ready. I need to stop by the mansion before the flight. And... I know we're in the last minute, but make reservations at some hotel, please."

"But what about the Tower?"

"It's under reconstruction. 3 rooms, please."

"Yes, boss. Will that be all?"

"Yes, that'll be all."

…

"Cameras ahead..." Happy warned her, reducing the speed of the car when he reached the street of the entrance of the mansion, where a crowd was waiting for them.

When the gate opened, a security team left the property to drive people away and clear the way. Even so, Happy did not accelerate too much, afraid of some paparazzo throw him/herself in the front of the car or something.

"Pepper! Pepper! Do you have something to say about the attacks on Sokovia and Seoul?"

"Is it true that Tony created the killer robot?"

"There's news that some armors plundered weapons and robotic items around the world! Does Tony and the Iron Legion have anything to do with it?"

"Is it true he's going crazy?"

"Are you guys gonna breakup?"

Pepper just ignored the questions; and in a few seconds she was left alone, when the gates were closed and Happy sped up, climbing the hill. A few minutes later, they were finally in home.

They waited for the familiar British-accented voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. welcoming them; then once again the female voice that came in its place:

"Welcome, Ms. Potts and Mr. Hogan." Friday was a few seconds late.

"Thank you." Pepper answered, already seated in the chair and taking off her high-heels. "Do I have any messages?" She asked, knowing that it would take some time to her to get the answer.

"You have zero messages."

"Uh-huh..." The redhead was ironic, as she looked at the screen of the cell phone and saw that there were 50 unread messages. She sighed, missing J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Tony has to solve this thing as soon as possible." Happy complained, throwing himself on the couch.

"I believe Friday is the least of the worries at this moment..."

"But she should be one of the priorities! The security is failing! At any moment a new emergency can happen and..."

"Unidentified object approaching." Friday's voice filled the place, interrupting the moment. And before she finished the sentence, Happy had already thrown himself on Pepper, using his body to protect her. The woman panicked, and the memory of when Killian's henchmen destroyed the house in an attempt to kill Tony invaded her head. She cringed, and they braced themselves for the thump...

That didn't come.

Happy pulled away a little and looked around. There was no sign of missiles, explosions or clouds of dust. He looked out the window, and all he saw was the immensity of the sky and the sea.

"There's nothing here." He said. Then heard the woman scratch her throat, indicating that she wasn't comfortable in that position. "Oh...my bad." He stepped off from her and lifted a hand to help her to get up. Then he lifted the chair and left it in it place, while the woman tugged at her skirt. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." She was still tidying up her clothes.

"I said Tony's gotta fix this fucking shit."

"Happy, language, please..." Pepper scolded him, and he just looked at her with the corner of his eyes, already contacting the security guards:

"Jerry? Did you see or hear anything out there? The computer said there was a unidentified object approaching! Yes, yes, do that." He said authoritatively, walking across the room.

"No unidentified object passed through the property, Boss! The only thing we saw was..."

"Bring reinforcements!" He interrupted the man who was speaking at his in-ear monitor when he heard a weird sound coming from the end of the stairs that led to the lower floors. Seconds later, a barrier of men in suits was already in front of the stairs, while another group of them was going downstairs, searching for who, or what, was there.

"Pepper, get out of here!" Happy ordered, and the woman obeyed. But before reaching the door, one of the guards warned her:

"Don't waste your time. That's nothing."

"How that's nothing? There's an intruder in my house!" The woman became angry.

"See with your own eyes..." the guard said, pointing to the stairs, from where were possible to hear voices coming closer and closer. And they were...laughing?

"And his face when he found out it was me? Sorry buddy, but that was funny!" Tony said, as he slapped the shoulder of a sulky Happy. "Oh... Hi honey." He looked at her quickly, before looking at the staff around him. "I'm out only for a few days, and this turns into a suit party?" He joked. Then he looked at the woman again, wondering about her silence. "What's going on?

"Guys, could you give us a minute, please?" That was all she said.

"Okay, you all heard the boss! The show is over! Everybody out!" Happy said authoritatively, dispersing the public. "Are you alright?" He practically whispered to the woman.

"Yes, thank you..." She smiled at her friend, who left the mansion next, along with the others.

"Pep, I..."

"A text." She interrupted him. "We could be dead now. And your last words to me came by a text."

"I didn't answer the call because I was busy. You know, saving the world." He kissed her on the cheek, before heading toward the kitchen, being followed.

"That's not the problem!"

"So what it is?"

"The problem is that this is the only way we can get in touch with you. By texting!" She raged.

"I was saving the world!"

"And when you're not saving the world, where are you? Because it's not me or with our friends! You're never present, Tony! They miss you, I miss you!"

"What do you want me to do? Stop being a hero?" He turned to look at her as he asked the question.

"I didn't say that!" Pepper answered in the same tone of voice.

"Is this because of Ultron?" The man asked, his brows drawn together.

"No, but now that you touched on the subject..." Than the man rolled his eyes and opened the refrigerator, looking for half a sandwich or whatever. "What was on your mind when you invented creating that thing?" Haven't you learned yet that you should not mess with alien technology?"

"I was trying to protect people, but I failed! I'm sorry!" He shouted, closing the refrigerator door too hard.

The woman went quiet, while watching him turn his back on her and start looking for the cutlery drawer. Then she sighed and scratched her head until she finally said:

"I can't handle it anymore. All this stress, all this...concern...With you, with me, with our security, with all this mess that you guys do and I have to fix, with the company... This is... too much for me."

"I need to show you something." Tony enthused, proving that he hadn't heard a single word.

"Look, don't change the subject!" She growled. "I'm trying to have a serious conversation and..."

"We have a useless shed in upstate New York, right?" He asked as he picked up a spoon from the drawer.

"Tony, I don't wanna to talk about sheds! Can you..."

"Friday, show her the compound." He ordered while opening a pot of yogurt, and then a holographic floor plan appeared on the counter. "Contemplate... the basis of the New Avengers."

"New Avengers?" Pepper asked, surrendering to her interest and knowing that, as usual, she couldn't have a talk with Tony about their relationship.

"Yep. Rhodes, Vision, and the little witch are now with us, and they need a better place than the tower to train. The Vision and the little witch are..."

"I know who they are. Maria told me, since you don't talk to me." She pinched him with her words.

"Anyway... If they destroy everything, it will be there, and not your project."

"Oh, so now is my project? Because I remember you perfectly saying that I could get myself only 12% of the credits..."

"You'll never forget that, will you?" He looked at her with the glow that only comes when he looks at or thinks about her. "What do you think?"

"I liked. But the shed... There are some objects in it. A lot of your father. What are you gonna do with all that stuff?"

"I'll keep it there." Tony walked around the counter to stand beside her. He thought about just throw all of it away, but he changed his mind for some reason. "Is that a yes?" He looked at her expectantly, waiting for the answer.

"Okay... I'll have the paperwork arranged."

"I knew I could count on you." He stole her a quick kiss. "I'm gonna apologize for the messages and for disappearing into thin later."

"You bet you will..." Pepper then got her mouth closer to the spoon the man was holding and stole all the yogurt that was in she licked her lips and left a completely crazy Tony alone in the kitchen.


	6. Chapter 6

A few hours later, a black limousine arrived at the huge Tower of Avengers. There were dozens of journalists, fans, paparazzi, and protesters at the main entrance, and none saw the vehicle passing through the underground back entrance.

Tony was soon out of sight, leaving Pepper, Bambi, and Happy being greeted by Maria Hill, who accompanied them to the Avengers' facilities, where reforms had already begun. They went around the place, while Potts watched everything with attention and horror in her eyes. Every bullet mark, every broken piece of furniture, every huge hole in the walls... She was terrified. But she disguised that as she talked to the people in charge for the reconstruction. And so it went on, until the tour through the wreckage was over; when focus became the press conference that would happen later.

…

17:00. The auditorium was crowded. Dozens of cameras and microphones pointed to the stage, where Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff would make statements about the latest events, especially in Sokovia.

Pepper, Happy, Bambi and Maria settled in the back of the room, close to the door, as usual. The other Avengers didn't show up. Better this way, since they could cause a scandal.

There was a tumult with the arrival of Stark and Romanoff, but soon the silence manifested itself. Everyone was attentive to the words of the Black Widow, who was the first to speak.

They explained what Ultron was, and that the thefts around the world were made out by his metal henchmen and the improved siblings, freeing the Avengers from at least one charge.

They summarized everything that happened the previous week.

They announced the measures that would be taken by Stark Foundation, in order to help everyone who have suffered the consequences of the war.

They lamented the losses.

They revealed the identities of Vision and the Maximoffs.

They spent a lot of time trying to explain what Vision was.

And finally, they opened space for questions:

"So... just to make it clear: did you guys create Ultron?" A journalist immediately asked.

"Next question." Stark said before Natasha could open her mouth.

"Where are the improved siblings now?"

"Pietro Maximoff..." Romanoff was quicker this time, and Tony looked at her in silence. "Pietro Maximoff died saving lives. And he had a death worthy of what he was: A hero. He will always be remembered by me, and my co-workers, especially by a friend in particular." She thought about Clint Barton when said it.

"What about the woman?"

"Wanda Maximoff has joined us, and will be in the first formation of the New Avengers, along with Vision and the Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, AKA War Machine." Stark replied.

"And the Falcon."

"And the Falcon." He repeated what his partner said, clearly being the last one to know about the news. "Next question?"

So they went on with the interrogation for a few minutes, and Tony skipped all the requests for a confirmation that the Avengers were responsible for the creation of Ultron.

Until, at the end of the press conference, the same reporter from before stood up and asked again:

"So you confirm that the Avengers created the Ultron?"

And Natasha was about to answer, when Tony interrupted her:

"Ultron is my creation, and mine only. The Avengers have nothing to do with it. No more questions." Then he stepped away from the stage and went backstage, where he disappeared from view.

…

"Yes... No, Mr. Stark did not... No! Yes, I know the numbers! Do you think he wanted all those deaths to happen?" Pepper was talking on the phone while watching the news, which was talking about the press conference that occurred earlier, and above all, attacked Tony. "We are helping in the possible, but... Yes, Stark Foundation is taking care of it. There will be an official statement in two days. If the Avengers will be there?" She saw something moving on the wall and wondered if it was a delirium, remembering that she had not eaten for hours. "No. Only Mr. Stark. Have a good night." She said and hung up, leaving the room next.

The kitchen was completely empty. The woman then could prepare (or reheat) her meal in complete peace. At least until she saw again something moving on the wall, and she was sure she was not having a delirium.

"Tell me you saw that." She asked looking at Happy.

"I did." He replied, stopping to attack the jug of biscuits and preparing to protect his boss.

"Excuse me... Could you please show up?" She asked; and then slowly, a red fellow crossed the refrigerator and stood next to her, staring at her with deep eyes. "I 'm Pepper." She lifted a hand, with a friendly smile on her lips. "You must be Vision."

Then the man stared at her for a few more seconds, as if he were reading her through. Then he finally he said,

"It's a pleasure to finally meet Mr. Stark's girlfriend." And then kissed her hand in courtesy.

"And this is Happy..."

"Hogan. Chief of Security of Stark Industries and Mr. Stark's personal friend. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." Vision lifted a hand, but Happy didn't hold it.

"What's up?" That was all he said.

"Your voice..." Pepper was still staring at the red guy with amazement. "It reminds me of..."

"J.A.R.V.I.S." He completed the thought of the woman, who agreed. "But I must warn you that I am not J.A.R.V.I.S."

"Yeah, I know your story. So, Vision... Do you eat?" She asked and looked at the oven, not trusting Friday's timer.

"Negative. Actually, I came here because Miss. Maximoff was attracted by the aroma and finally gave in to my pleas to her to eat something."

"I smelled something different from coal coming from the kitchen. Who bought food?" Barton asked as he reached the room. And when he saw the woman, he hugged her. "Hey, Pepper."

"How are you, Clint?"

"I've been better." He was sincere, and then looked at Vision, undoing the embrace. "Any news?

"She still has not left the dormitory, but finally agreed to eat, after feeling the aroma of what Miss. Potts is preparing."

"Oh, I'm just reheating. The deliveryman took too long to arrive, the food cooled."

"If you had ordered pizza, as I suggested, it would be free." Happy commented, before returning to eat biscuits.

"If she had asked for pizza, they would arrive by jet, but would deliver on time." Clint replied, then turned back to the woman in front of him. "Is it okay if I bring a plate to Wanda?"

"Of course... There's enough for everyone, if Thor is not too hungry."

"Have you ever seen that guy not hungry?"

"I Never...?" Pepper replied, reflecting. Then Barton looked around.

"Where's Tony? You're always together when you're here."

"He left after the press conference and hasn't returned so far. I have no idea where he is." She replied, extremely worried. "I'm trying to find him, but he never answer the phone; and Friday is not helping too much..."

"Yeah, Tony has to fix that thing soon..." Hawkeye scratched his forehead. "Do you want me to..."

"Helen Cho left the hospital!" Maria said, getting in the kitchen.

"Great! We're gonna go visit her. I want the jet ready tomorrow morning. But if the Avengers are going with us, we'll need a bigger vehicle. An airplane or quinjet, whichever is better." Pepper gave the orders, then Hill nodded and got back to the phone calling, walking out of the kitchen. "Are you going with us?" She asked Clint.

"It's the least I can do, after all she has done for us."

"May I go?" Vision asked, stopping of examining the packages of the restaurant, that were organizedly left in the sink. "Though she was under Ultron's dominion, Dr. Cho is the reason of my existence."

"Can you control your powers?"

"I certainly can."

"Then I see no problem. But maybe you should wear something normal."

"So we are going to have a banquet? What are we going to have tonight? I'm so hungry I could eat three entire sheeps!" Thor said, as he reached the place and dropped the Mjolnir on the counter. And then in seconds the kitchen was full and noisy.

…

Pepper knocked three times on the door, and when received authorization, she entered Wanda Maximoff's room.

The woman was sitting on the bed and moving her fingers, solving a magic cube in the air; but stopped when she saw who had entered the room. The cube fell into the hands of Vision, who was sitting in front of her.

"Good night…"

"Good night." The improved one responded with her strong accent in a sad tone.

"I would bring your meal, but Miss. Potts volunteered." Vision informed.

"Excuse me..." The redhead set the tray on the bedside table. "May I seat?"

"Sure." Wanda cringed, even though there was space enough for the three of them in bed. "So you're Pepper Potts?"

"Indeed I am. And you're Wanda Maximoff."

"As far as I know, yes."

"Wanda. It's the same name as..."

"Your mom's." She finished, and Pepper got surprised.

"You read minds." She confirmed, being very careful with the thoughts from then on.

"You look just like her."

"Thanks." Potts smiled. "So... Wanda... I heard you have not been eating lately. Well, know that I will not leave here until you feed yourself at least a little." She said calmly, but authoritatively.

"Don't blame me, I don't feel..."

"You don't feel hungry, because you're feeling depressed. I understand how it is. I have already lost someone in the family, also in an unexpected and heroic way." Pepper thought of the news about the car accident as she said it.

"I'm sorry about your father." Wanda said, reading her thoughts.

"I'm sorry about your brother. I didn't get to know him, but I'm sure he wouldn't want to see you sick. So try to eat some, please." Pepper gestured to the plate on the tray.

"This smells really good..." Maximoff commented as she set the tray in her lap. Then she began to eat slowly, being watched by her friend and the other woman.

"I'll give you some privacy." Vision reported after a while. Then without standing up, he simply crossed the bed and the carpet, heading down the floor.

"How old were you when..."

"When my father died? 16."

"And how long did it take to you to get over it?"

"I haven't got over it until today. Sometimes I see or think of something that reminds me of him, and then I start to cry..." Pepper's voice failed, so she waited until she could recompose herself, then continued with her speech. "There are certain things that can not be overcome. We must only learn to live with. Today I work, travel, sing, dance, laugh, eat... I do everything normally. But the pain is always here. And I think that it will never disappear.

"How do you do it?"

"Time doesn't stop running while we're in bed." She explained "I had school, then college, and then work. Today I have friends, a huge company to manage, bills to pay, Tony and his super friends giving me a lot of work every day..."

"So you really are with Stark?" Wanda asked, and a quick trace of laughter passed over her face.

"Yes..." Potts admitted with a small smile, still worried about the man's disappearance.

"I never thought Stark was that kind of person."

"Behind what everyone knows has a good-hearted man, who really cares about the others. Sometimes so much that he ends up making some mistakes..." Pepper exchanged glances with the woman in front of her as she said it.

And they followed the conversation for a long time.


	7. Chapter 7

The following morning (after a whole night awake, looking for Tony's whereabouts), Pepper went alone to the Avengers Tower, from where the Quinjet would set out for Seoul. Afraid that Tony would come home while she was in the air or on the other side of the planet, the woman asked Happy to stay in New York, just in case. But she soon discovered that it would not be necessary, when she got out of the elevator and bumped into Natasha:

"Good news: he just arrived." She said, then Pepper sighed in relief. "He is fine. And is not smelling like alcohol, which is great.

"Where is he?"

"Guess where."

...

As always, Tony was in the lab.

His hair was wet, and open bags with the logo of a coffee shop were on the table, proving that at least he had taken a shower and fed himself.

He was watching something about helicopters on a monitor, while other screens next to him were displaying the progress of Friday's update and some data from the Damage Control, which was collecting all the exotic material left by Ultron and the Avengers at battle spots.

"Good morning for you too." The man said, as he didn't hear even a word coming out from Pepper, who was walking toward him. And he went on without any response, until he felt a strong hug. Then he finally took his eyes off the monitor and looked at the woman, willingly returning the affection.

"Hey..."

"Are you alright?"

"Are you?"

"I'm better now that I know you're alive..." Pepper softened her grip a little, not knowing where were located, or how serious were, the battle wounds on the man's body. "Where were you?"

"Around."

"Around" She repeated. "Why didn't you answer my calls?"

Silence.

"Are you alright?" She tried again.

"Yeah, I'm great!"

"Okay, you can stop now." Pepper pushed him away, so she could look into his eyes.

"Stop what?"

"Stop pretending you're okay." She slipped her hands until his shoulders. "You've been worried about everyone, and are putting yourself aside..."

"I said I'm fine."

"Please stop lying to me. And to yourself..." Pepper asked, sad. "Tony, yesterday you came home laughing, as if nothing had happened. And I have to say that hiding what you're feeling behind smiles and jokes won't make you feel better..."

"Usually it works."

"No, it doesn't. We know you're not okay." Then the woman looked deep into his eyes, that were reflecting the truth. "Talk to me..." She begged, stroking his cheek. And Tony stayed in silence for a few seconds, before answering:

"What do you wanna know?"

"How are you. Really."

"You know how I am."

"I want you to tell me."

"Okay, I feel terrible!" He admitted, slightly raising his voice. "Of course I'm not fine! Everybody on earth almost died, because of me!"

"And what are you gonna do with it?" Pepper calmly asked.

"What?"

"Are you going to face the situation and try to fix things or are you gonna get into a bar and stay there until you get into an alcoholic coma?"

"Do you think I was drinking?"

"Were you?"

"It wouldn't be bad to get drunk and forget all the trouble, even for a few hours. But no, I had not been drinking."

"So where were you? Why did you disappear after the press conference and just showed up now?"

"I was just trying to fix some things..." Tony explained, exhausted. Then it was Pepper's turn to pause.

"Okay..." She sighed after a while, stroking his shoulders. "We can do this, we're gonna do this. We're gonna take care of everyone. Together. But I need you to take care of yourself, too." Then Tony tilted his head to the side in silence, touching her hand. "I've been talking to Hill about all of this, and she gave me a list of trusted professionals, who..."

"Therapy? Seriously? I already have therapy with Banner, remember?"

"Yeah, but do you know where he is right now?" She asked, then Tony fell silent. "I just think that... after all these events, having a professional help would be good. And I'm not just talking about you."

"You gonna do it too?"

"Yes..." Pepper lifted a hand up to his hair and brushed it with her fingers.

"Okay. Therapy. It might help. I'm in."

"Right..." The woman weakly smiled, still without interrupting the caresses. "Try not to hide what's going on inside of you. Is normal to have feelings. What you cannot do is hide them behind a smile, or one day you will end up exploding."

"OK."

"Alright ..." She said, gently pushing his head back. Then she reached down to his lips and kissed them, sitting on his lap in the meantime.

"Pep, no..." He gently pushed her off, after a while. "Believe me, I want this as much as you do. But I can't stop now, I have a lot of work to do."

"That was just a kiss."

"Yeah; but one thing leads to another... And I can't get distracted at this moment.

"Okay... Sorry for interrupt your work." Pepper got up and smoothed her dress.

"Hey. Don't be mad at me... I'll make up for it later, I promise."

"It's okay..." She tried to reassure him with a kiss on the forehead. "Work hard. And remember that our flight is in 5 hours. Try not to be late." She asked; then walked out of the lab.

...

They arrived in Seoul early in the morning of what would be the next day in relation to New York.

Helen Cho's residence was in the mountains, surrounded by the local woods. It was a great place to live. Decorative fountains, bells, and the sounds of the calm surroundings brought tranquility to anyone who passed through the garden, and the sculptures made of plants and shrubs were impressive.

The garden was incredible, and the mansion was unbelievable. It was the exact point of intersection between nature and technology. Full of curves, it looked like the place had been molded with clay, rather than bricks and metal beams. Huge windows let natural light come in at any time, and the choice of furniture fit the room perfectly. Trunks and twigs completed the decoration, giving the impression that the whole mansion was a large tree.

Helen had been in her room since she'd left the hospital, and she hated it. She had used her own regeneration technology on her wound, she was 100% recovered. But she was in bed, when she could be working, because no one would let her even get up without help. Then when her maid said that the Avengers were waiting for her in the living-room, she could not have been happier.

"There she is!" Barton brightened when he sight her, and almost everyone got up to greet her. Wanda and Vision watched everything in silence. "How are you, Doc? Need help to seat down?" He asked, offering his arm for support.

"I used my Cradle technology to restore my wound. You, better than anyone, know that I'm completely healed."

"I know, and I will be eternally grateful." He looked into her eyes, sincere.

"So, are you alright?" Steve asked.

"Yes! And you guys are..."

"Looking like a boyband?" Natasha asked, before hugging her. All the men in the room were wearing black suits, giving the impression that at any moment they could start to sing and do a rehearsed choreography."

"I was going to say that you guys are looking tired, but yes!" She laughed. "Where's Dr. Banner? She asked, then her smile disappeared, when she noticed the sudden change in the mood of the room.

"He disappeared." Steve was the first to answer. "We have no idea where he is."

"That's Banner. He disappears, and reappears when we need him. And then he disappears again." Clint finished. "I'm sure he is fine." He looked at Natasha as said that. "But the important thing is that the war is over. We won."

"Yeah, I watched the press conference on TV." Helen then looked at Wanda. "I'm sorry about your brother."

"And I'm sorry for what I've made you pass through. It's my fault. If I had not induced you to stop uploading Ultron, you would not..."

"If you'd let the upload get completed, we'd all be dead. You did the right thing, Wanda." Steve tried to comfort her.

"If there's a culprit here, it's me." Tony said serious, still sitting in an armchair. "If I had not created Ultron, none of this would have happened."

Then everyone stared at him, but no words came out of their mouths. Pepper and Rhodes gave him some sad, but welcoming, looks, which were reciprocated with a quick smile.

"Well, we got something good with it!" He stood up, pushing away the gray cloud in his mood. "Look who came to see you!" He smiled and put his hands on Vision's shoulders, which had been silent until then.

"I heard how you managed to finish what I started..." Helen looked at her creature with admiration. "What you said at the press conference was entirely true?" She asked Stark, who nodded. "In that case, I'm sorry for J.A.R.V.I.S." She looked back at the red man. "It's a pleasure to see you awake, Vision. Even more not being the way you were designed to."

"It's a pleasure to meet my creator." He gratefully nodded .

"This is incredible..." The scientist began to circle the humanoid. "With the molecules of Vibranium, the Cradle was able to create a new body, totally functional... And with the operational matrix of J.A.R.V.I.S., plus the jewel of the mind, imagine the size of your knowledge... it would have been horrible if it had fallen into the wrong hands."

"The jewel of the mind is powerful. The being who possesses it must be powerful, and worthy to receive it." Thor said. "It chose him as proof that he is strong, and worthy of heart and mind. In contradiction, he would have exploded like a can of sardines that stayed too long in the fire."

"That was you!" Hill and Natasha were annoyed, remembering the week when the Avengers Tower stank like fish, just like everyone who passed by.

"Can I?" The doctor asked, about to touch Vision's hand.

"Feel free." He replied. Then she explored his hands, neck and head (the only parts of his body that wasn't protected by clothes) with intense admiration.

"Tell me about your powers. What else do you do besides fly and be extremely intelligent?"

...

"... So you know where to find us." Tony was saying goodbye to Helen as he put on his sunglasses.

"The big tower with a giant "A" in New York. Very discreet." She teased.

"And think about the offer with kindness, okay? Right to housing, transportation, state-of-the-art laboratories, high research funding... Call Pepper when you decide. You two can come to an agreement."

"I'll think about your case, Tony." She answered and watched him walk away. Then it was Pepper's turn to say goodbye, and she persuaded her to accept the offer with simple words:

"I've heard that Thor are going to be there while he's on Earth..."

"I'm in." Helen surrendered, then the redhead smiled.

"Welcome to our team." She held up her hand, and Cho squeezed it. "When can we talk about your hiring?"

"I'll come to you when I convince everyone that I'm fine and I can travel."

"I will be waiting." They said goodbye. Then Pepper walked over to Tony, who pulled her to him and placed a kiss on her temple as they walked to Quinjet, ignoring the presence of the cameras and reporters who had found them. The other Avengers disappeared into the air or walked in silence with the couple.


	8. Chapter 8

The group gradually broke. Pepper, Tony, Rhodes and Maria stayed in Seoul, where they would have lunch and, later, a meeting with the mayor, intending to discuss the measures to be taken to the recovery of the city after the last incident. Later, the women would return to the United States on a commercial flight and Tony would call a suit as they took off, since he had to be present in the press conference in a few hours. Pepper had to cancel her presence in the statement, once she couldn't get home in time.

Thor disappeared in the sky as he left the residence of Dr. Cho, flying uncomfortably, thanks to the suit he was wearing. Rhodes left right after the meeting with the mayor, in his War Machine suit.

The others returned in the Quinjet but also were gradually separating. Steve land down in London, saying that he needed to see a old friend. And getting to the United States, Barton was the first to say goodbye:

"This is where I stay…" He said, making a perfect landing in a clearing in the woods.

"Send a kiss to Laura and the kids. Including that traitor." Natasha said, taking control of the ship.

"Got it" He and the partner punched the fists, then he took his belongings. "Bye, everyone...Ouch!" He complained of back pain, as walked down the ramp of the vehicle. "I'm getting old! Maybe I should retire..."

"Don't even think about it! We still have a lot of ass to kick!"

"Ha!" The man laughed, but he was really thinking about it. So the Quinjet started taking off and he gave a brief waved, before running towards home.

At the end remained Romanoff, Wanda and the Vision. And before long, the three were back in the Avengers Tower.

"How do you feel wearing human clothes?" Wanda asked Vision, looking at his suit as they walked down the corridor.

"Normal. I can live with this. Miss. Potts volunteered to help me find a...style."

"I think you have an English style." She allowed herself to smile.

"She said the same. Perhaps because of the voice given me. This... strong British accent probably make people imagine me wearing a wool vest and holding a cup of tea. I wonder if they used to imagine JARVIS that way..."

"We did!" Natasha interrupted the conversation, overtaking the two of them to press the elevator button. "But we imagined JARVIS as a classic English man holding a cup of tea, not a red guy with a bright stone on the forehead. No offense." She made a "sorry not sorry" face and entered the elevator as the doors opened.

…

"... So he created this "Ultron" to protect Earth. Well, as we can see, it didn't work!"

"...Stark not even tried to defend himself! Since there is no excuse for this!"

"...Tony Stark has done a lot of nonsense, but this is by far the worst ever!"

"...Sokovia is nothing but a big hole now!"

"...What will he do now?"

"...Who will pay for all this damage?"

"...Is Tony Stark going crazy?"

Tony was changing channels, but all of them were talking about the same thing: his speech earlier, taking all the blame for the creation of Ultron, and for everything that happened because of it.

"Could you leave on channel 5? My cooking show starts in a few minutes. If you didn't cut today's programming, of course. With all this brouhaha."

"So, why you here?" He asked, tilting his head on the couch to face Nick Fury. "I've apologized, and I'm dearly paying for my actions. What else do you want me to do? Hand me over to the police?"

"Oh, they would love it! Have the honor of putting the great Tony Stark, the invincible Iron Man, behind bars!" The General laughed. "No... I came here to bring you this pizza, after all, you went through a lot, right?" He pointed to a large box on the coffee table. "I heard that your favorite are the New York ones. I crossed the country to bring it up to you."

"No one brings me pizza from New York with no interest behind." Tony said, taking a slice. "Spit it out, what you want."

"Actually I have two requests."

"You should have brought two pizzas."

"I brought a family size! It's equivalent to two medium!"

"Touché." Stark said with his mouth full. "Spit it out."

"My first request is for you to disappear from the media for a while. With all this Ultron story, people are coming to you, and with that, coming to us. And our intention is to stay in the shadows, so it would be better if you disappear, at least until the dust goes down "

"I'm already doing this, haven't you notice? We are in my official hiding place!" Tony raised his arms in the huge living room of his Los Angeles' mansion.

"Keep doing this. Then start to gradually appearing. Make some treat here, some charity there... Talk to your dynamic duo. They are better at this than me." He referred to Pepper and Maria.

"Hmm..."

"And finally: I heard that you're gonna build a Avengers Camp!" Nick joked with the name.

"Not a camp, but who told you this: Friday or Hill? Because I'm sure it wasn't Pepper or Helen Cho."

"Hill is loyal to you. She didn't say a word."

"Okay, so Friday."

"Me?" The program seemed to be offended.

"Yourself, snitch!"

"Your computer didn't say a word either. In fact, I hadn't been presented to the substitute of the old JARVIS yet..." He looked at the ceiling, then looked back at Tony. "Did Pepper approve?"

"Didn't complain yet." Stark answered, before taking another bite of his slice of pizza. "So, how did you hear about it?"

"Sooner or later, everything comes to me, Tony. You would never be able to build a huge training center without me noticing it. Anyway, I wanna see it."

"Ok... Friday, give him what he wants..." He asked, and then the lights dimmed and the holographic plant began airing on top of the pizza box.

"Impressive. Congratulations, Stark." Fury put a hand on Tony's shoulder, after carefully studying the hologram. "I'm gonna follow everything."

"Of course you will..." Tony said with full mouth, before drinking soda. Then the lights came back to normal and the plant disappeared, at the exact moment the front door opened and Pepper and some security guards arrived.

"Leave the bags right there, please... Nick!" The woman came to him and they greeted each other.

"How are you, Pepper?"

"I'm great, thank you." She smiled, then looked serious at Tony. "I thought that, at this time, you would still be in New York."

"I thought that, at this time, you would already be in Los Angeles." He replied in the same tone.

"We stopped in New York to catch Happy and our bags, and then we went to visit my mom. We haven't seen each other in person since before the...incident. But this is not a talk for this moment. I'll let you guys work. Good night, Nick." She said, before turn around.

"Are you two alright?" Fury asked, watching the woman upping the stairs and getting out of sight.

"Pepper and I? Well, I almost caused the extinction of all forms of life on Earth. It is expected that people are not loving me at this moment..." Tony drank some more soda.

"Good luck with that. Well! I'm gonna leave now."

"Don't want to take a slice?"

"No... I'm on a diet." Nick hit his belly when said that.

"Yeah, you should. I noticed that you've gained some weight."

"Good night, Stark..." The General then went to the door, diverting from the employees carrying Pepper's belongings inside. "And remember!" He pointed to his good eye. "I'm the eye that all sees."

"Literally "the eye", since you only see with one of them." Tony joked and Fury grinned, before heading his way. "Next time, bring pepperoni!"


	9. Chapter 9

Pepper was exhausted. That was a long day. One that, literally, had over 24 hours. And when it finally came to an end, all she wanted was the bath, a glass of wine and a good book.

But her zen moment didn't last too long, because soon her thoughts strayed to Tony, who probably had tucked himself into the workshop the second after Fury walked out the front door.  
She early decided not to go to the garage and interrupt his work, and she was sure he would never leave that place at his own free will. So she got surprised when left the bathroom and found him waiting her in bed.

"You here?"  
"This is still my room, right?"  
"I'm surprised you still remember the way here…" She said, walking over to the bed.

Tony looked at every centimeter of her body, very well protected by an old shirt with the name of college she attended and sweatpants. Damn. She could drive him crazy without making any effort, quite the contrary. The woman clearly wasn't expecting any company that night.

"How was the conference?" Pepper started a conversation, sitting in bed and pulling the blanket. Then she opened the book she was reading in bath.  
"Haven't' you seen?"

"A few excerpts."  
"Enough to know that I said everything I could, and now everyone hates me?"  
"Uh-huh…" She was beginning to get lost in the book in her hands.  
"So it wasn't anything other than what you saw."

"Hmm... And what Nick wanted?"  
"To me to disappear for a while."  
"It might be a good idea, since the last thing people want right now is to look at your face and remember what happened."  
"Does that include you?"  
"Why did you say that?" She interrupted the reading to look at him.  
"Because you're avoiding me?"  
"I'm not avoiding you, I'm just giving you some space." She corrected him. "You said you have a lot of work to do; and I don't want to slow you down."  
"Ok. Sorry for the accusation."  
"No problem." She said, returning to the reading. Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw his body getting closer.  
"Fury told me to talk to you and Hill on what to do during my time off from cameras, and my future return to them."  
"We can do this…"  
"Ok; and can you mark a consult with a therapist for me?" He asked, starting to trace kisses on her shoulder. Pepper then left the book on the bedside table and stared at the man beside her.  
"Of course I can…" She said, holding his hand. "I'll do it the morning."  
"Great." Tony looked up, so he could see her eyes. "Thanks."  
"You're welcome…" She weakly smiled. Then the two of them slowly approached their faces, until their lips get together.  
They exchanged kisses for a while. Then Tony began to feel delicate hands strolling through his chest, under the shirt. So fulfilling the promise he made earlier, immediately tried to return the caresses:

He began pulling the woman's body by her waist, and when they were close enough, his hands were soon inside her shirt, tracing a straight path to her breasts. Then he began to play with her nipples, making the woman moan in his mouth.  
Pepper searched the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it. Tony enjoyed the moment to do the same with hers. Then he threw the shirt away, already kissing and sucking her breasts, letting the woman crazy. Until she pushed him away with an impressive violence, and slid her body until she found his pants' hem, later pulling it down, along with his underpants. No long later, her pants and panties went to the same way.

The woman came back up to Tony, but he soon flipped their bodies, taking control of the situation. Seconds later, their bodies were already connected.

They distributed kisses, hickeys, bites and even light scratches in places they knew the other liked. Pepper had more caution, since Tony was still carrying some cuts and bruises all over his body. But she didn't spare love and affection, just like him. And all that time there was no time, concerns or fears. There were only the two of them.  
He was the first to get there, but it didn't take too long for her to join him. Then the two stared at the other, having some kisses while recovering, not daring to move away, even one centimeter, from each other.

After they separated, it wasn't too long before Pepper fell asleep. She was exhausted, It could be seen from a distance.

Tony stared at her for a while. He admired every bit of her naked body, but especially her serene face. Serenity that would disappear the moment she woke up. Serenity that would be replaced by worry, sadness and panic, the second those beautiful green eyes would open..

He couldn't stand seeing her like that. He missed the old Pepper. The woman before Ultron, before the Extremis, before the Chitauris... Before everything.

He just wanted to be able to protect her from all evil.  
And there was only one way to do that.

Thinking about it, he covered her with the blanket and left the bed. He would protect her from everything, even if it was the last thing he would do.


	10. Chapter 10

"Good morning, Miss. Potts. It's cold outside, and the sky is cloudy, with high chances of rain throughout the day. I recommend you wear a coat and carry a umbrella with yourself, when you leave."  
"Leave?" Pepper asked, groping the mattress and finding it empty. Then she opened her eyes and looked around.  
"Cleaning and gardening teams are scheduled throughout the whole morning. So if you don't want to face the noise and mess, yes, you should leave."  
"Tony?" The woman looked toward the bathroom, hoping that the man got out of there.  
"Mr. Stark is out. He left as soon as you fell asleep." Friday confirmed what, deep inside, Pepper knew. Then the woman faced the empty part of the mattress, unable to stop thinking about the past. But she didn't let herself be shaken, because she was sure there was a good reason behind Tony's absence.

"Where is he?"  
"Mission as Iron Man. I'm not allowed to reveal the location." Again, Friday confirmed what Pepper thought.  
"Let me know when there's any news." She asked. Then got up, to get ready for another day of work.

…

The weeks dragged, and Tony spended his whole time on missions with Iron Man or Stark Foundation; at the laboratory in New York, having consultations with the therapist, or training with Vision; and when he was in Los Angeles, it was always in the workshop. He worked in new suits, Friday's update, in the development of vehicles that wouldn't need drivers, the search for Banner…

And then, people never saw him. Except in some missions, or while checking the progress of the reform of the Tower, which was finished in a few weeks, and the work of the new Avengers facilities, which not many months after the idea was born, was coming to it's last steps. On these occasions, he was seen walking through the halls, next to his girlfriend, always clean, well dressed and fed.

Who looked by far would never suspect, but Tony and Pepper's relationship was gradually crumbling. Tony had been spending more time with machines and the Avengers than with the woman, who no longer tried to get him to accompany her in anything other than revisions in the constructions or at a charity event or another.

Pepper even tried couple therapy, but gave up after Tony missed it a sequence of times; either because he had to go to Canada to put out a forest fire, prevent a terrorist attack in Russia, or because he was too focused on something that was creating and forgot the appointment.  
There's no way to a couple therapy to happen if one of them is never present in the sessions. Then she would continue her individual therapy and he would continue with his.

Tony was also suffering with it. He missed being with the woman, and hated what was happening between them.  
He loved her too much.  
But the world needed his help that moment.

They had to find a way to conciliate their lives with Iron Man. It would not be easy, after all, with too closeness, Tony get the risk of losing Pepper. And being away... he get the risk of losing Pepper. But the two of them have been through a lot. It wouldn't be that stone in the middle of the road that they couldn't get over or kick it out of their way.

But he would never forget her. And he was always with something that remind him of why he was doing that, something that encourage him to keep working to make the world safe. So it was common to see him driving an orange car and wearing clothes or accessories that remind him home.

Meanwhile the months passed.

…

The state of New York is known for the lit, noisy, hectic and chaotic capital. But the New Avengers facilities were totally out of all of that.

A dirt road in the woods led to the place that used to be just an old shed. And getting there, what were most seen were soldiers running, jumping, paying pushups, or doing what they were ordered as part of their training.

Tony drove right to the underground garage, where he parked the car on the spot with his name, among a lot of vehicles prepared for missions, plus the ones owned by the officers and soldiers who worked there. Captain America's motorcycle was a few spots away.

He entered one of the buildings of the complex and found Rhodes en route to his training, then decided to follow him. But with ulterior motives, of course:  
"Tony, It's no use insisting! I will not repaint my suit just because you're bothered!"  
"So you're gonna let those drawings ruining the bodywork?"  
"They are memories! Each of them represents a Ultron bot I destroyed. Is not because you are not nostalgic that I don't have to be either."  
"Have you ever heard the phrase "Who lives in the past are museums"?"  
"Have you ever heard the phrase "My Body, My Rules"?" Rhodes hit back. Then the discussion got interrupted when a man, leaving the cafeteria, ran into the two:  
"Stark!"  
"Dr. Selvig!" Tony said excited, and they greeted. "How long! Last time we saw each other, you were…"  
"Getting recovered from a alien mental domination?"  
"I was gonna say "with a few extra hairs.""

"Yeah... I'm getting old. And not in a charming way as you." He knocked on Tony's shoulder.  
"Dr. Selvig, is a pleasure to meet you. I'm James Rhodes." The man introduced himself and they shook hands.  
"So, what brings you here, so far from the land of the Queen?" Tony asked.  
"Thor! I helped him a few months ago, and he offered me a job here. I accepted without thinking twice!"  
"That's great! It will be great to have you in our team, Doctor..." Every single muscle of Tony tensed at the voice of Pepper behind him. "Thor's looking for you."  
"It must be because of Jane…" Selvig sighed.  
"What Jane has to do with it?" Tony asked.  
"They broke up! I guess I shouldn't said that... Well, now it's late. It was a pleasure to see you, folks. Dr. Cho! I was just wanting to talk with you!" He called the woman when saw her, and together they walked down the hall.  
"I need you to sign this." Pepper's smile was gone as soon as the man walked away. She handed a clipboard to Tony, who signed the papers without even reading them.  
"What you're gonna do this weekend?" He returned the document. "Take a break, let's have a getaway. Cannes?"  
"I can't. It's my mother's birthday."  
"Can't you cancel?"  
"You know I can't do this to her."  
"Then ask her to go with us!"  
"You really want my mom to be with us in a getaway?"  
"Of course not."  
"Then why are you asking me to do this?"  
"I just want to spend some time with you!"  
"I want it too! But I can't cancel with my mom on her birthday! I barely see her!"  
"Guys…"  
"Mind your own business, Rhodey!"  
"James, haven't your training started 10 minutes ago?" The couple interrupted him at the same time.  
"Fine…" He held up his hands in surrender.  
"I gotta go. Maria is waiting for me." Pepper then turned around and headed for the elevator, being observed by the men.

"I think she's mad at you."  
"I'll fix it."  
"Will you?" Rhodes asked, before tightening his friend's shoulder and go on his way, leaving him alone.  
Then Tony desperately ran to the woman.

"Pep! Pep!" She stopped walking and turned back as heard the call.  
"Tony, you can be with me whenever you want, and we can go everywhere, whenever we want! Why it has to be exactly this wee..."

"You're gonna sleep here?"  
"What?"  
"You're gonna sleep here?"  
"Maybe. Why?"  
"Have dinner with me?"  
"I'd love to…" She smiled, completely changing her mood.  
"Great. I'll call you later. Now, about our vacations…"  
"Vacations?" Pepper looked at him, serious.  
"Hey! I'm trying to do something nice here!"  
"And I'm listening…" The woman raised her eyebrows as said.  
"Great. So, after we got beaten in Seoul, we took refuge at this Barton's farm, where we had to do everything, because it was literally just us and... Have I told you that he has wife and three kids?"  
"No, but I already knew."  
"Wait, how you…"  
"Tony. Focus."  
"Right. How about we buy a farm for summer?" He suggested, and the woman looked at him for a few seconds, not believing what she had just heard.  
"The world is a mess...and you want to milk cows?"  
"I didn't say that. But it must be... interesting." He said, and the woman rolled her eyes. "Pep, come on. Even the manual labor was interesting. Cap and I found some axes and fought over who cut more wood. I won, of course…"  
"Right…" She smiled, knowing it was a lie.  
"...And it would have been pretty relaxing, if there wasn't Ultron wanting to kill everyone on earth." He grimaced. "But now I can try to really enjoy it. With you."  
"But what about Iron Man? And about everything that is going on? Do you think this is the right time for us to forget everything and get isolated in a farm?"

"And when will that be?" Tony asked. Then the woman thought for a few seconds.

"You're right. Ok... I think I can think about it."  
"It's enough for me!" Tony responded, and had a stolen kiss.  
"Now I really have to go." She warned and turned around.  
"Okay." He pulled her back for another kiss. "Bye."  
"Bye." She gave him a peck on the lips and runned away, before she got pulled again.  
"I call you!"  
"I'll be waiting!" She replied, having her back to him, and then entered in the elevator.

Pepper haven't notice, but as soon as she moved away from Tony, his watch showed a notification that made his smile disappeared, letting his face dark.

And she neither saw it when he ran to a chopper, not knowing when he would get back.

…

"Hey." He greeted her while entering the room, but only receive a crooked look. "I thought you were sleeping."

"It's hard to sleep not knowing where you are, and if you're alive or dead." She replied, blocking the screen of the starkpad that was in her hands." Are you gonna tell me where you were?"

"In a hospital in Norway." He said, taking off his coat and throwing it in an armchair. Then he walked to the bed, loosening his tie. "A young woman was in Sokovia _that_ day, and as might be expected, she is traumatized by what she saw there. She has depression and panic attacks, and even tried to kill herself a few times, but failed. So yesterday, she tried again.

"She died?" Pepper asked horrified.

"No, but she fell into a coma." He sat on the edge of the bed and sighed. His curved back carrying the weight of the consequences of his actions. "The family thinks she's better that way. So she's not haunted by the images that had dominated her head and made of her life a hell. Hell that that I caused...

"Tony…" The woman dropped the starkpad in the pillow and crawled to the edge of the bed, to embrace him from behind. The man snuggled in her thin arms and allowed himself to enjoy the moment, since that was one of the few places that he felt good in. Then he closed his eyes and inhaled the pleasant smell of shampoo and perfume that were coming from her body.

"I wish I could say that everyone and everything will be fine. But I can only say that we are giving everything we have to help as many people as possible. We can help this young woman too."

"I'm already working on it." He hid the fact that the last thing the girl's family wanted was his help.

"Alright..." Pepper muttered, her lips in his hair. "We will continue doing everything we can, okay? Now look at me." She asked, and he turned his body, now facing her.

The woman was with a clean face, as well as her body. She should have recently left the bath, getting ready for the date that never happened. Her hair was dry, loose and a little messy, thanks to the pillow. She was wearing a black cotton shirt written E= MC² in front of her breasts and black and white checkered shorts.

Her eyes sparkled, revealing her happiness to have him alive at home, but worry and sadness were also present there, as well as the weak dark circles.

A little wrinkle of concern had presence on her forehead, and Tony wanted to kiss it, but not as much as he wanted to kiss her thin lips, that were more distant from him than he would like.

She was beautiful. And seemed to be fine, despite everything

But Pepper couldn't say the same of her partner.

Tony was elegantly dressed, as always. His clothes were clean, as well as his hair and mocassins, which were shining. His lips were smiling at the woman, but his eyes were sad. His strong dark circles snitched his extreme exhaustion, and his eyes reflected all pain and fear that they had ever seen. He was terrible, but, if asked, he would surely lie.

But he couldn't lie to her.

Pepper brought her face close to his and gently kissed his lips, but too soon, she back off. Tony yearned for more, especially in the first seconds after the end of the contact, but soon realized that that night he wouldn't get what he wanted.

"We're not gonna have sex tonight, right?"

"You change the subject so fast that sometimes I can't follow..." The woman put her hand to her temple, processing information. "And the answer to your question for now is "no", by the way."

"Why not?"

"Because we need to talk. We can't skip to the nice part and just ignore everything that's going on."

"I don't think we can ignore everything that is going on in the world."

"I'm not talking about the world, I'm talking about us. This..." She repeatedly pointed to both of them. "It is everyday harder. I wonder how you intend to spend summer in a farm with me, when you can't spend a single day without disappear on a mission or locking yourself in the laboratory..."

"Simple: I'll take vacations."

"You're never on vacations, Tony."

"This time I will!"

"Until something happens." She added. "You could never rest knowing that there are people out there needing you."

The man stared at her in silence, knowing that it was true. Then he sighed.

"I know... this is complicated; I am complicated. Ok? But we can fix that! My father was also a pain in the ass, and that never stopped him and my mother of…"

"We are not your parents, Tony..." She said, then noticed that the man was staring something behind her. "What?" She looked back and saw Vision near the wall. "Great..." She said, returning to her original position, then started looking to her legs.

"Sorry for the interruption, but Maria Hill want to talk to Miss. Potts. She is waiting in the living room."

"Ok, I'll go in a minute." Pepper looked at him aside. "Thank you, Vision."

"You're welcome."

"We need to have a conversation about privacy. And doors!" Tony added.

"As you want, sir." The humanoid nodded, then went back on the same wall that he came in.

…

Half hour later, after finally finish the emergency meeting with Hill, Pepper returned to Iron Man's dormitory, finding Tony snooping into her starkpad.

"Have you spoke to Vision?" She asked, hanging the robe.

"Don't worry, he will no longer invade our privacy again."

"What you're doing is also privacy invasion, did you know?"

"You have some interesting ideas here..." The man ignored her comment. "September Foundation..."

"Yeah, sure; Now give me the starkpad, please." She asked with outstretched hand.

"Are you still mad at me?" He asked, handing over the object. The woman then blocked it's screen and left it on the bedside table, before sitting on the bed. "We can have a conversation, if that's what you want."

"Tony... I just wanna sleep without discussing with you once again." Pepper pulled the sheets and looked at the man beside her, tired.

"Okay."

"Okay..." She lay with her back to him and turned off the lamp. Then she felt Tony do the same, and the silence filled the room for a few minutes. Until she herself spoke again:

"I'm gonna use my name in September Foundation."

"Makes sense. If you use my name, people will think of me. And that spotlight is yours. Besides, I owe you this since Stark Tower."

"Yeah..." Pepper weakly smiled, remembering the 12% discussion they had many years ago; at a time when the world's biggest problem was Thor and his aliens friends and enemies destroying a town in New Mexico. If they knew what was coming...

"I'm sorry for not showing up again. And for being a complete asshole." Tony said, looking at the shining stars in the view of the sky provided by the huge suite window. Seconds later, he felt an arm and a leg engaging his body, and soon he became locked in a hug.

"You're not an asshole. You are a good man, who cares about people. And is upset with everything that's going on."

"Even because it's my fault."

"Mulling this thoughts over won't make any good. What we have to do now is to keep helping those who need help. But not only the victims of Sokovia, Seoul, and all other places hit by Ultron. I'm talking about people in general. There's so many bad things going on... it would be nice if everyone had a reason to smile, a motivation to move on..."

"So that's the reason of the September Foundation?"

"Yes..."

"I love you, know? " Tony asked. Then Pepper lifted her face to look him in the eyes.

"I love you too." She said. And then warmly sealed her lips to his.

"So let's do this. It won't erase people's memory, but it can be a motivation to go forward."

"It would be great if we could do this. Change our memories, remove all the trauma... We would have spent much less with therapists." Pepper raised her eyebrows and gave a peck on his lips, before leaving him and settling in her sleeping position. "Good night, Tony."


	11. Chapter 11

Pepper's commentary settled in Tony's head, not letting him sleep. After all, it would be possible to alter memories? That, of course, would never change the fact that the original memories actually happened. But it could help, a lot, in the treatment and rehabilitation of people who have suffered some trauma. It would be a mark in the history of psychology and neuroscience.

It would not be easy. Nor cheap. But who said it would be a problem?

Then he made calculations, elaborated algorithms, spent a sleepless night, with his mind racing. When Pepper woke, the bed was full of open books and notebooks, papers with notes and other crumpled, empty cups and food packs. A original-size hologram of a brain was slowly spinning in front of Tony, who was frantically typing on a starkpad and making dots and dashes of different colors in the hologram.

"Good Morning. Donut?" He offered the box without looking at her.

"No, thank you." She grimaced, watching the mess. "Why are you doing this here?"

"I was in the lab, but the cleaning crew arrived and they were deconcentrating me with all that noise. There are people all over the compound speaking, training or cleaning; and the only places without anyone to bother are the bedrooms, but this is the only one Vision will not come to, I hope. So here I am." Tony looked at her and smiled, before turning his attention back to the work.

"Since when do you're that curious about neuroscience?" Pepper said as he scanned the covers of books scattered around the bed.

"Since when I was creating Mark 42; but after your comment last night, my interest has considerably increased."

"So you took me seriously."

"Of course, yes! Pep, imagine if we could intercept the hippocampus and end with traumatic memories. We could aid in the treatment of anyone who lived some traumatic experience!"

"And how are you gonna do this?"

" I answer you that later. Can I borrow Happy?"

"Yes, but where are you going?"

"To Larry's vacation house in the Hamptons. Oracle can give me a little help with this project."

"Be careful with what you are getting into, please." She asked, standing up and wearing his robe.

"Got it."

"And clean this mess."

"Yes ma'am."

…

Oracle Corporation was a successful company, and subsidiary of Stark Industries, specialized in the development and commercialization of computer hardware and software systems. The CEO was Larry Ellison, and he was the first person to hear Tony talk about his new project, taking the opportunity to ask for a review of a slightly different software he was developing.

Even busy with this new project, Tony really tried to fix up things with Pepper. Throughout the week, after the most recent discussion they had, he was beside her. He accompanied her on a tour to present the compound to Nick Fury and the Secretary of State, General Thaddeus Ross; in a lecture she gave at a college in Ohio; in a routine medical check up, and even on her mother's birthday (but he left early, so he could fly to New York and say goodbye to Thor, who would return to Asgard the next morning).

But Tony himself also canceled the farm plans, since he was too focused on the new project to enjoy the life on the field. So the couple made a few professional travel (and a brief stop in Vegas to celebrate Tony's birthday), and from time to time, appeared together at events for which both of them were invited. There were some dances, dinners, charity events, meetings, lectures, presentations, exhibitions, Formula 1 circuits, technology fairs, auctions...

And in the end, after a brief stop in Washington DC, to resolve some matters about September Foundation, the couple (and Happy) went to New York to celebrate the Independence day / Captain America's birthday in a party at the Avengers Tower.

They arrived at JFK airport in midmorning, and right there, Tony took a helicopter, going upstate alone.

He arrived at the compound minutes later, and was walking to the front door of one of the buildings; when then heard an unfamiliar voice:

"Stop right there, expensive shoes!" A guy wearing a red and gray suit shouted, before jumping from one floor up, falling in front of the visitor. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I own this place and I'm coming in." Tony replied without looking at him, and the huge door opened with his approach, proving the truth. Then he entered the room, followed by the stranger.

"Sorry about that, Mr. Stark. We have to be strict about safety."

"Yeah, right...And who are you?"

"Sam Wilson. I was at the party you gave at the Tower."

"I give lots of parties."

"Cap offered me an invitation to join the Avengers."

"Oh, yeah. Eagle, right?"

"Falcon, sir."

"Whatever. Why are you following me, Tweety?"

"Do you need any help?"

"I know every inch of this place, I think I can find my way alone."

"You know? Then you know if there's any secret passage, or something sinister like, you know…"

"Hey, Stark!" A familiar voice called, and Tony looked back. "Hey, man…" Rhodes shook his friend's hand and pulled him into a hug.

"Rhodey."

"Came to train?"

"Definitely not." The billionaire straightened his tie as said. Then they both looked at the man who was left.

"I can handle it from here, Wilson."

"Fly, little bird." Tony joked. So Sam nodded before turning around. "It was he who Rogers brought here?" He asked, watching Falcon's backpack technology.

"Yes. He's a good soldier. Don't let even a ant enter without permission."

"Yeah, he might be useful." Tony looked back at his friend. "What are you doing here? It's 4th July!"

"What are **you** doing here?"

"I knew everyone would be working and came here get you. Where's Cap? It's his birthday, he is the last person who should be here!"

"How cute, you remembered his birthday. Do you remember when is Pepper's?"

"Hey, Birdie!" Tony called for Sam, who stopped halfway and looked back. "You like parties, right? We're gonna have one at the Tower tonight! Can you make Cap appear there?"

"Got it!" He replied, and went his way, beginning to speak in the communicator."

"So tell me: who else is here?" Tony put his hand on Rhodes' shoulders, then the two started walking.

…

Night came quickly; and soon the Avengers Tower was full of artists, models, athletes, veterans, super heroes, entrepreneurs and other guests of Tony and Steve, all together and mixed. Waiters were walking around with champagne and appetizers, and good songs were being played from who knows where, since only a few people knew the location of Friday's audio outputs. The party was in full swing.

"Happy Birthday!" Pepper said excited, as she hugged Steve.

"Thank you, Pepper."

"Here." She gave him the gift. "I hope you enjoy."

"You didn't have to worry about that…"

"It wasn't a headache at all, believe me. Buy a gift for you is easy. Hard is to buy a gift for Tony. This year I just let him take me to Vegas. God, I hate that place…" She took a sip of her martini full of olives. "Open it! I wanna see how it looks on you."

"Alright…" He smiled and obeyed.

"Hey, dude! It's your turn." Falcon slapped on Rogers' shoulder, holding a pool cue and a bottle of beer in the other hand. And only then noticed that he was accompanied. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

"Not what you're thinking." Steve replied, knowing full well what was going on his friend's head."

"Hey, I know you." Sam looked at the woman, recognizing her from the covers of magazines and news on TV. "You're the boss, right?"

"Oh! No, Steve is the boss. I just pay the bills." Pepper amicably replied. "Speaking which...you're Sam, right?"

"Sam Wilson, at your service."

"Thank you…" She shook his hand. "In fact, I was looking for you…"

"How can I help you?" The man was nervous, already knowing what was coming next.

"Well, first, I would like to say: Welcome to Avengers."

"Thank you." He was relieved with the false alarm, but not for long:

"And also... I had been checking some bills, and I wonder if you already solved the problem that resulted in the exchange of the gate of the shed with my father-in-law's artifacts, during my vacations. I was told that you would solve that." The woman looked at him seriously.

"I already solved that." He was firm, still not revealing the fact that the culprit of the incident was a man with the size of a ant. And Pepper studied him with the look, while drinking her Martini, until she realized that Steve was wearing a jacket she had bought for him.

"Oh, it fits!" She smiled. "It looks great on you."

"Now you can get rid of that old jacket!" Sam joked.

"It's great. Thank you, Pepper." Steve hugged her again.

"You're welcome…"

"Come on, Rogers! Let the beautiful Miss breathe and come play with your partners!" A old man called, before taking a sip of beer.

"You better go. And be careful with your friends. I heard that one of them had to leave loaded the last party…" Pepper looked at the group of elderly people gathered around the pool table. "Have fun!" She said, before turning back.

And the second the woman was out of sight, Rogers broke the smile and looked at Sam:

"What happened to the shed's gate?" He asked serious. Then Falcon found himself cornered.

...

The party was a success. There was a lot of drink, food and music were great, the guests were friendly, and there was no scandals.

In the middle of the celebration, a huge red, white and blue cake, with 97 candles, was carried by a group of waiters to Steve, which took a while to blow all of them, but got it in the end.

Close to midnight, there was a huge show of fireworks, celebrating the national holiday and Cap's birthday. All the people who were in Manhattan and the surrounding areas were able to watch the festival of lights, which made news in worldwide media.

Over time, people began to leave. And in the end, only the hosts remained; scattered on the couches of the living room and chatting, while having a few drinks.

"Wanda, are you sure you wanna do this?" Helen Cho was worried, but deep down she knew that there was no need. "Wouldn't it be better if you start with something less important?"

"How about Stark?" Natasha suggested.

"I'd love to, but I have to refuse." Tony stopped to admire his girlfriend's face and fake smiled to the agent, who reciprocated.

"Don't worry about it." Wanda said, leaving her glass on the coffee table.

"Are you sure?" Vision asked, extremely worried.

"Yes, I am. I trust you." She weakly smiled, then stood and waited.

Vision then rose from his chair and stood in front of the woman. Then he crossed her body in a second, not wanting to be there beyond that. And when he found himself on the outside again, he checked if Wanda was well, under stupefied looks of his partners.

"So! How was it?" Natasha asked.

"That was...Interesting…" Said Maximoff, and immediately Dr. Cho was at her side, measuring vital signs and asking a few questions.

"So you can go through people? You can pretend to possess some on Halloween!" Stark joked.

"Or he can remove objects such as bomb fragments from inside of them." Steve added.

"You can't even understand when I'm playing, right, popsicle?" Tony stared at his partner, who was serious.

"Tony…" Pepper rebuked him, putting her hand on his leg.

"I know…" Today is his birthday, I'll leave him alone…" He drank the rest of his whiskey and stood up. "I'll get another drink. You guys want something?" Then almost everyone started talking at once. "I'm gonna pretend I heard everything. Honey?" Tony looked at Pepper, who didn't think twice before answer:

"A Vodka Martini with a lot of olives, please."

"Consider it done. Come on, Happy!"

"Are you kidding? I just sit!" The safety complained.

"Hey, I'm not asking! Let's go!" Tony gestured toward the bar; and Happy then rose up in disgust and followed him.

"Don't talk to me like that again, you're not my boss."

"Whatever…" They started a discussion as they walked to the bar.

"Where's Hill? I didn't see her." Steve looked for the agent, after observing Wanda, Helen and Vision getting back to their seats after ensuring that everything was right with the woman.

"Her vacations ended yesterday, but she didn't come to work today. She's probably solving something with SHIELD…" Pepper said. "How about Clint? I knew his son was born. And as is a boy, I assume that the name is not Natasha…" She looked at Romanoff.

"No…" The agent smiled. "It's Nathaniel."

"Nathaniel Pietro Barton." Wanda completed.

"It's a beautiful tribute…" Pepper launched an affectionate look at Scarlet Witch, who agreed.

"While we're on the latest developments; Miss. Potts; have Mr. Stark mentioned to you if he had some progress in the searching for Dr. Banner's whereabouts?"

"Vis!" Wanda scolded him, then looked disguisedly at Natasha.

"No, he hasn't mentioned...anything." Pepper had to tell the truth. "But I know he's still looking for him. And I'm sure he's not gonna rest until he find him." She added, then also looked at Natasha. The agent had a empty look, the smile was gone from her face.

Suddenly the room went silent. Then Vision looked at every single serious face over the place, not understanding the situation:

"I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"

"No. You didn't." Natasha reassured. "So... Pepper! How was in Washington?" She changed the subject, trying to improve the climate in that room.

"That was excellent! If all goes well, we will start in two school years." She replied, excited.

"Two years?"

"It's the time we need to solve all the paperwork, achieve partnerships, schedule dates, plan the speeches... Maria and I have some ideas, but we still have a lot to discuss."

"You're talking about September Foundation, right?" Tony asked, coming back with the drinks. Then served Natasha, Wanda, Helen, and, at last, Pepper, taking the opportunity to sit next to her. Happy came close behind him, with an ice bucket full of beer, meeting the requests of Sam, Rhodes and Steve. "I was thinking about we start it at MIT."

"Great idea!" Pepper smiled at him.

"And I can include the BARF in the presentation, what would be perfect, because it fits into our goal!" Tony enthused.

"BARF?" Everyone asked, but the man only had eyes for one person:

"We're doing this to finance projects of people who normally would never get the sponsorship, right?" He asked directly to Pepper.

"And to give scholarships, but that's the idea. What is BARF?" She grimaced.

"Oh, yeah. I haven't explained yet." Tony then looked at all and began to lecture:

"Binarily Augmented Retro Framing. A method of intercepting the hippocampus and erase traumatic memories. Ok, our mind is like a computer. We have a HD with stored files of any data type; a smell, a taste, a face, a feeling, an event... anything. And these data are encoded in binary, with the purpose of being processed on the computer, or in that case, in our mind. For example: When we remember of our mother baking a raisins cake on Christmas 40 years ago, it is as if we had looking for a video on our computer's HD and watched." He took a sip of champagne. "Manipulate the memory is simple: we only need to imagine it, already modificated. But a stimulus, a shock, is needed. I'm sure I'll have to handle a hell electromagnetic headache after use it; but in the end I'll can, for example... Well, I wish I had never created Ultron. So I can have the memory that, on the day I convinced Banner to help me to make that stupid mistake, he shows me how it would be crazy, and then I listen and get convinced to give up." He drank some more. "There it is: my fake memory. It don't change the fact that I created Ultron and screwed up everyone's life. But perhaps it helps me to have at least three hours of sleep a day." He ignored the pity looks he received.

"But how…"

"But how will I send files from my mind out?" Tony finished Rhodes' question.

"Binarily augmenting it." Pepper said. "It's like sending an e-mail."

"And that's why I love you." Tony smiled at the woman, before explaining to others. "E-mails doesn't allow sending all kinds of data in binary files. They are often transliterated into the plain text representation, and this encoding increases the file size during the transfer. After the receipt, the file is transliterated to binary again and is displayed normally." He made hand gestures as said. "What I'm gonna do is send the manipulated memory, via a transmitter point positioned in my head. Prior the transfer it will be transliterated, and then again, when received. And how our memories are not in MKV or something, I'm developing an app that converts them into video format. Larry gave me some tips and... I know exactly what to do."

"It will be like watching a movie of your altered memories?" Natasha asked.

"The idea is to be more like something real going on around you. We can recreate the local in which the memory occurred with a 3D printer, and then watch it as if we were there again. Pepper, for example, could walk through Stark Industries' office while watching herself meeting me, without taking pepper spray on her face…"

"I was just doing my job! How many times do I still have to apologize?" Happy complained; then Pepper looked at Tony as if asking him to stop with that.

"And how much it will cost?" Helen asked.

"The cost? About 600 million. Ten million plus or minus."

"What?"

"600 million?"

"What you guys thought, that it would cost one dollar?"

"Tony, that's a lot of money…" Steve said softly, ignoring the scandal.

"Exactly! No one would ever finance this project!" Stark then looked at his girlfriend. "But you would! Because you trust me. And we trust those kids. That's why we're doing this. Not us. You. Because all this...the September Foundation...it's your idea." He pointed to her heart. "And that's it. Will you accept me? Come on, we already spent more than that with only one of that suits I exploded that Christmas...

"I'm not worried about the money. I'm worried about what you're spending the money with; the kind of thing you're getting into."

"It will work." He said convinced, looking at her in the eye. And the woman stared at him for a few seconds before giving the verdict:

"You have a year and half."

"Okay…"

"I want you to keep me always updated."

"Okay."

"And please, don't melt your brain."

"Of course not, I'm gonna need it." The man smiled. Then he kissed the woman, who soon walked away with a shy smile. Then he kissed her temple as she drank her Martini, paying attention on the next topic of the conversation.


	12. Chapter 12

"... A few more weeks, and it will be completely restored."

"We should create a landing place exclusive for Thor."

"The gardening team thanks. It isn't easy to restore a crisp ground." Maria Hill and Pepper were talking, as they walked through the corridors of the New Avengers compound.

"You disappeared. Problems with SHIELD?"

"And when not?" Hill offered a mint, and her boss accepted.

"Tony will display a new project during the September Foundation presentation.

"And what it is?"

"New technology. Binarily Augmented Retro Framing, or BARF, as he calls it."

"BARF?"

"We're gonna work in a better acronym."

"Good. And you believe this is gonna work?"

"Someone has to. Isn't that the purpose of the September Foundation?" Pepper smiled at the agent, then Happy opened the gym door for her.

The place was full. Rhodes was in the middle of a group of soldiers who had opened a circle around a single man, who was paying a few (or many) pushups, after losing a bet. Out of the mess, Steve and Sam lifted weight and Natasha was teaching some fighting techniques to Wanda, being observed by Vision.

Tony was practicing with help of a mudjong, and didn't stop even when the woman approached him.

"Came to workout too?"

"Not with this dress." She held up a folder. "I need you to sign this."

"Okay…" He gave a last punch, and then approached the woman, while drinking some water. "You look beautiful. Going somewhere special?"

"I'm going to Paris, to sign a few contracts about Stark World Expo."

"So you're going to the city of love alone and for work. That sounds boring…" The man picked up the folder. "That will be before or after your trip to Sokovia?" He looked at her seriously, after seeing that the papers dealt with another huge indemnification on his behalf, for the death of a group of people; many of them children.

"You had to start reading what I give to you just now, hadn't you?" She asked sadly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was trying to protect you."

"Don't do it." He ordered, extremely serious. "I'm guilty of all of this. I deserve the pain."

"No, you don't…"

"I'm going with you." He said, returning the folder.

"What? Absolutely not!"

"I said I'm going with you."

"No, you're not!"

"I'm going with you, Pepper!" He raised his voice.

"Mr. Stark?"

"What?" Tony asked still angry, facing Vision, who had just approached.

"A landslide in Nepal just happened."

"Dead and injured?"

"No number confirmed yet. The authorities cannot get to reach the place."

Tony put his index finger on his ear, but his communicator wasn't there. Then he looked around and found it on the ground, near the mudjong.

"I see you later. Have fun in Paris." He told Pepper, as putting the gadget back to his ear.

"Tony…" She grabbed his hand, before he moved away. "I'm sorry. I just did it because I can't stand to see you sad all the time…"

"Alright. Apologies accepted."

"Thanks. But please…" She squeezed his hand when he tried to loosen it. "Stay away from Sokovia. Going there will only make things worse." She begged, and the man looked at her in silence. Then he kissed her hand and let her go, before walking away.

"Friday, prepare the Red Snapper. And trace a flight plan for Nepal." He ordered, walking toward the door. "Vision, you come with me. Rhodes!" He called his best friend, who immediately stood beside him. Then the three left the place.

…

Tony obeyed Pepper's request and didn't appear in Sokovia, which was good, because the people there were still hating him. The best option for him was to keep distance, until his situation with the city improved. If that would ever happen someday.

But the fact that he hadn't put a foot in that place since the incident didn't mean he didn't care about things there. So all the time he was accompanying the city to rise again:

One year later…

"... _Of course we still have a lot of work ahead, but we're strong people! We're gonna rebuild ourselves, and rebuild our city, completely!_ _Hurray_ _, Sokovia!" the mayor raised his hand, and the audience applauded._

"Two minutes, Mr. Stark." Bambi warned, after entering the dressing room.

"Hmm...OK." Tony looked at his phone again, and saw that the mayor of Sokovia was cutting the ribbon, officially reopening the city. Then he got up and put the phone in his pocket, before buttoning his jacket. "How do I look?"

"In...the exact way Miss. Potts planned." She smiled.

"As always, right?" He left the dressing room and started walking in the backstage, followed by Pepper's assistant. "Where is she?"

"At her dressing room, finishing getting ready." Bambi said, checking on a starkpad if everything was ok. "There will be a teleprompter to your right, in case you forget what you have to say."

"Or I just improvise, everyone knows I'm good improvising."

"There's water bottles on tables in the wings, if needed. And if you want anything else, just ask."

"Okay."

"Do you want a mint?" She raised the drop as asking.

"No, I'm fine. Thank you."

"Do you need something?"

"Yes, I need you to relax! Come on, Bambi; is not like this is the first time we do this…" Tony said, stopping next to the stage. So a technique approached and began installing the microphone on his clothes. "There she is!" He opened a huge smile when saw Pepper hurriedly walking toward him. "Nice shoes…" He joked, looking at the black slippers on her feet. "You should go on stage with them. So I won't need to ask for a ladder to reach you." He joked, making her laugh. Then they watched the microphone employee depart. "What's inside there, can I see it?"

"Absolutely not." Pepper took his hand out of the neckline of her robe. "Friday told me you were watching a live streaming from Sokovia and…" Then Tony opened his mouth, but she just kept talking. "We can talk about this later; I just came here to ask if you're okay. I know how you get when speaking of that place."

"I'm great." He tried to reassure her, hiding his true feelings. And Pepper had no time to argue, as someone shouted:

"30 seconds!"

Then a song started playing on stage and all the people on backstage began to run all over the place, assuming their positions.

"Ok, honey; look at me." Pepper asked, holding Tony's arms. "If you're not feeling well, you don't need to do this. I can get in your place, even wearing a robe and slippers, if necessary."

"I'm great." He repeated.

"Okay…" She took a deep breath. "If you need anything, just press the microphone, then you'll be in a private line with the technical team."

"Pep, I know how this works. I'm the one who designed it."

"If you forget your speech, read the teleprompter. It will be on your right. And, please, remember that we're live on internet. So no bad words."

"Can I say shit?"

"No."

"Shit…"

"What did I just say!?" She fumed.

"I'm not on stage yet!" He defended himself.

"10 seconds!"

"Okay... You can do it. And you're gonna do it great." Pepper encouraged him.

"Can I have a kiss for good luck?"

"A kiss for good luck." The woman grabbed Tony's face and gave a peck on his lips. "Now go!" She pushed him. Then the man stood on his mark and straightened his tie, waiting for his cue. And when his name was called, he walked briskly to the center of the stage, being warmly received by the audience.

"Thank you... Thank you…" He tried to contain the crowd, which gradually calmed down. "Well... I'm back!" He opened his arms, and the audience applauded again. "But I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about the future. More specifically...the future of Stark Industries." Then Tony pointed to the huge screen behind him, where a video started playing, presenting some news from the company as he spoke. "Throughout this night, you will all be presented to everything we have updated and created, to sell in the coming years, always with the latest technology! Media, transportation, softwares, HUD's, the Arc Reactor? Sure! We're gonna show you everything!" Then the audience applauded again, and he waited a few seconds before continuing:

"And to begin it, I'd like to introduce you to something that will please those who, for example, are members of the "Mile High Club" and would like to have more... privacy." He said, and the audience laughed. "Ladies and gentlemen... the Stark pilotless vehicles."

Then he went out of the front of the screen, and everyone watched the video that started playing.

Soon after, the representers of the aviation division and of the land and water transports took the stage and spoke more about the news of Stark Industries in those areas. And so it followed the event.

Representers from all divisions and subsidiaries of Stark Industries went to the stage and presented each of the new features. Going from wireless headphones with the option of being tracked by an app, as they were easy to be lost; to special spacesuits, developed in partnership with NASA, seeking comfort for astronauts.

And in the end, Tony returned to the stage:

"Well...we are coming to an end." Then the audience complained. "But there's still time for one more presentation!" Then people got euphoric. "The best of all, I'd say. But I'm too suspect to say that." He smiled. "So now I would like to invite to join me on stage...the head of all of this, and CEO of Stark Industries...Pepper Potts."

So everyone, especially Tony, cheered for the woman, who left the backstage and paraded to the center of the stage, in her high heels and long black dress, with a cut that showed most of her right leg while walking.

When she approached Tony, he kissed her hand, as he looked at her eyes, completely admired. Then he let her go and stepped back, opening up an arm as if to say "the stage is yours." Pepper thanked him with a smile and stepped forward, staring at the audience:

"Ladies, gentlemen... People who are watching us online... Thank you for joining us on this pleasing evening. It is a great pleasure to finally share with all of you what we have been working on past year. And before we begin, I would also like to thank every single one of the employees who took part, directly and indirectly, of every little piece that made all this event possible. Without each of these people, none of this would be possible." Then the audience applauded. "Well...as Mr. Stark said, we have time for one more presentation. And to present this latest project, we only need three words: Stark World Expo."

Then the screen began to display a video with sights of several major cities around the world, plus some records from the last Stark Expo.

"The biggest, and best, exposure already organized by Stark Industries! There will be over 500 days, going through more than 50 cities around the world…"

Then the screen showed a huge list of venues and their respective dates. The Expo would be ten days in each, then have a break of three days, before opening in the next town.

"...With over 300 attractions of our bases, subsidiaries, partners, and several local autonomous, throughout its duration! And we are going to show something never seen before. We are going to show a completely new technology, and the highest standard that Stark Industries, or any other company has ever achieved. So be prepared." Pepper smiled, causing suspense. "Tickets for the first stops in the United States go on sale on January 2, 2017, and can be purchased through our website and the box office of the places that will host the event; in individual day options or in packages with the ten days included. So guarantee your tickets...and I see you in 2018" She finished with a smile, and the audience applauded.

"You...were...amazing…" Tony received her in the backstage, with a bouquet of flowers.

"Thank you…" She accepted the gift and kissed him on the lips. "You were too. And you're very handsome tonight…" Pepper caressed his chest as saying.

"Thank you! You're the first person to tell me that. And I think you'll be the only one, since you are so beautiful that no one even noticed me." He made her laugh. "You're stealing the whole attention!"

"Yeah, right…"

"Hmm...excuse me?

"Yes?" Pepper looked at her assistant, who had just come closer.

"The photographers are ready."

"Ok; Thank you, Bambi…" She smiled.

"Where's...ah. Nevermind." Tony saw Happy approaching them in a hurry. "You're late. Sleeping on work, hum?"

"Shut up."

"Ok... So I won't say your fly is open…" Tony said quietly, back to looking at Pepper. "Let's go, then?" He asked, and then the group began walking through the halls.

"So Mr. Stark goes first, Miss. Potts will soon after, and then the two together, before the others arrive." Bambi guided them. "You two will take pictures with everyone, and at the end, there will be a group photo with the whole team."

"And then Happy will drive us to Burger King, 'cause I'm starting to get hungry." Tony added.

"This is New York. What about that food truck in Central Park?" The head of security suggested.

"Great idea! What do you think, hon?"

"I think I'd rather eat real food. But you two can go. Just don't complain when you find out you are both with high cholesterol and pressure." Pepper said, checking some information on Bambi's starkpad. Then Happy opened the door and she gave the flowers to her assistant, before entering the room holding hands with Tony.

…

The photoshoot took place exactly as Bambi had said. Tony came rampaging, making fun poses and some formal ones. When it came time for Pepper, he stood admiring her, sitting on the floor. Then the two took a lot of photos together, before the representers of the Stark Industries sectors join them.

And in the end, there was a small reception in another party room of the Avengers Tower, this time with the company's employees only.

"That's a really a great idea! If you show me something concrete until November, we might start introducing it in the stops in South America!"

"November then! Now, I'm sorry for the rudeness, but I need to say goodbye. My flight is in three hours and traffic from here to LaGuardia is probably a mess…"

"I'm sure it is…" Pepper send a solidarity smiled to the representant of Cordco, a subsidiary of Stark Industries, located in Australia. "So I'll see you in November. Have a nice fly home."

"Thank you, boss." The woman greeted, before leaving.

"Also going home today, Larry?" Pepper looked at the man beside her.

"No... I'll have to wait until the first commercial flight in the morning. My jet is with mechanics, getting updated."

"We came with our yesterday, and I must say: it was one of the best flights we've ever had. Right, Tony?"

"It was." He agreed, before drinking some champagne.

"It was fast, safe, quiet…"

"Not mention the fact that, without the drivers, there's a reduction of more than 100 pounds on the total weight of the jet. We'll never need to worry so much about the weight of the bags anymore." Tony added.

"Miss. Potts?"

"Yes?" She answered. So Larry walked away to get another cocktail.

"Your mother called. She said she just got home and is already going to sleep; Iceland is a beautiful place; she watched our event during the flight; you were wonderful... and she is happy Mr. Stark have left home to "anything other than a suicide mission." She also said you were beautiful." Bambi read the messages, ending with a quick look at Tony.

"How lovely she is…" The man said, before drinking some champagne.

"I'll call her in the morning. Thank you, Bambi."

"Welcome, boss. We're gonna spend the night here or should I ask Happy to prepare the car?"

"We're gonna stay here."

"Don't worry, Vision is not here. Nor any of the Avengers." Tony said, seeing the worried face of the assistant. "No scary things in the middle of the night!" He smiled. So Friday started talking on his ear, taking the animation of his face.

"What happened?" Pepper asked worriedly, then the man handed her his glass, so he could swipe the hologram that started playing on his watch.

"Cap thinks he has found a Hydra base in the Amazon."

"So you have to go."

"Yes." He said, then looked sad at her. "I'm sorry…"

"It's okay…" She stroked his shoulder. "Change of plans, Bambi. Bring a helicopter, we're going home."

"Yes, Miss. Potts."

"Do you want one too? Or you're gonna work from here?" Pepper asked Tony.

"I already asked for a suit."

"So just one helicopter, Bambi."

"I'm gonna arrange it immediately." She said, then walked away.

"I'm really sorry..."

"Don't be. It's your job, you're not doing anything wrong…"Pepper clung him in disguise, since they were in public. "So go get them. And I see you at home, okay?" She kissed him. "Bye."

"Bye…" He said, and she walked away.

"Larry! I'm going to Los Angeles right now; do you want a ride?"


	13. Chapter 13

Tony disappeared for weeks, totally involved in the seeking for confirmations of the location of Hydra's hiding in the Amazon. Pepper was only able to hear news about him through Friday, that always told her that he was alive when she asked, and when, finally, the news came on TV, after the Avengers invade and destroy the hidden base in the forest.

…

"What I'm saying is that this will make everyone's life easier, not just mine! I mean, how many warnings I give daily by the absence of the badge?"

"Happy, I understand your idea; I had, by myself, been searching a lot about it before. But we're not gonna do that."

"Why not? It's a great idea!"

"And when output cases happen at the company? Have you stopped to think about the damage that we would have if we had to pay for a removal surgery for every former employee?"

"What if we just turn it off?"

"And let that thing in their bodies?"

"What is the problem?"

"I don't want them to look like cyborgs!"

"They won't! Okay, and if they... disintegrated over time?"

"And then what? We would make replacements every year? How expensive that would be?" Pepper asked, then entered the kitchen and found Tony in front of the stove. "Hi love! Since when you're at home?" She left the bags of a organics-only market on the counter and walked over to him.

"Since about 2 hours ago."

"Why didn't you call me? I would have come earlier..." She kissed him.

"I wanted to made you a surprise, then I prepared dinner." He glanced at the huge mess he had made. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Happy wants Stark employees to have chips implanted in their wrists, to replace the badges."

"Great idea!" Then he saw that Pepper gave him a reprover look. "I mean, really bad idea. What would we do when someone left the company?"

"That's exactly what I was talking to him!"

"Not to mention that it would be only a matter of time before someone find a way to hack it."

"And there's the query of invasion! After all, we would be forcing people to put a foreign object in their bodies, so they can work with us!"

"Alright, how about bracelets? Like that ones Tony used to wore when using Mark VII?"

"They are as easy to be lost as the badges. I've lost a lot of them."

"Oh, that's true!" Pepper pointed to Tony with the indicator. "And it was very dangerous, because until he could turn off the bracelet, anyone who have it could call for the Iron Man suit."

"Okay, so I guess I'll just keep berating everyone who are not using the badge…"

"Like if you didn't love to play the bossy head with them…" Tony said. Then Happy rolled his eyes and left the kitchen.

"So, how was work?" Pepper asked, after taking a look at what Tony was trying to prepare. "Did you get hurt?"

"No. And about work, it was the usual. A lot of people trying to kill me."

"I'm glad no one got success…" She kissed him on the shoulder. "So this special dinner is to celebrate your return?"

"Actually I was planning it to be an apology for the last time we met."

"What do you mean?"

"You have probably planned a special dinner, and I was about to leave you alone and go eat burgers in Central Park with Happy, when Cap called me. So that's an apology for being a jerk that night."

"That was mulling over in your head all this time, wasn't?" Pepper asked worriedly, and the man didn't have to answer. Then she hugged him.

Tony laid his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes, exhausted. The woman stroked his back, giving a few kisses on the side of his face.

"Sorry if I gave the impression that I was angry with you. But I'm not, okay?"

"That's probably just my fucking anxiety talking louder…" He sighed. "But you should be angry." He added. "Letting you alone wasn't cool. I'm a complete jerk."

"If you were a jerk, you would not be preparing me dinner." Pepper corrected him, and then noticed that one of the stove burner was on. "By the way, you should check whatever is in that pan, before it burns."

"Fuck!" Tony panicked, undoing the hug. Then let out a sigh of relief when he opened the pan and saw that the fish wasn't ruined.

"Salmon, huh?" The woman observed, leaning against the sink.

"It is. So we won't run the risk of get some disease if it gets raw on the inside."

"Great choice…" She smiled, watching him work. Happy then returned to the kitchen, with more bags in hands.

"Are you still here?" Tony was surprised. "Go away!"

"Would you take the shopping off the car if I left?" The chief of security hit back, sure that he would not. "And you're not my boss, you cannot throw me out."

"But she can!" Tony pointed to Pepper, who bent her head, so she could look at her friend.

"Happy, is friday night. Go have some rest. Leave it there, I ask someone to finish it later." She asked politely.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. You were with me all this time when Tony was out. Nothing fairer than having a rest. And also…"

"You two want to be alone. I got it." He interrupted her, then put the bottle of milk in the fridge and grabbed a can of soda. "So I'll leave you alone."

"Thank you…"

"Hey." Tony called him. "Thanks for taking care of Pep while I was out."

"That's what friends are for. And, plus, that's my job." He said, opening the can of soda. "Call me if you need something."

"Of course. Thank you, Happy."

"Good night."

"Good night…"

"Good night!" Tony said, focused on turning the salmon pieces without breaking them.

"So, you... Oh! He forgot the candy…" Pepper stirred. "Friday, where are the seaweed candy?"

"In the second bag on your right." The program answered, and the woman began to search.

"So you bought candies for him to be quiet in the market, as they do with children?" Tony asked, watching.

"Don't be jealous, I bought for you too." She told him, before leaving the kitchen with the candy pack in hand. She returned shortly after, barefoot and checking a heap of open letters, most with messages from little fans of Iron Man.

"The photos my mom took in Iceland have finally arrived…" She said, while sitting on one of the kitchen table chairs and placing her foot in another.

"I saw the envelope. I just can't understand why she developed the photos and sent us by mail when she could just send an e-mail…" Tony said, opening a bottle of white wine and serving it in two glasses.

"There's also invitations to the New York Firemen's Ball. Will you join me?"

"Of course I will. I'm all yours now."

"Good to know…" She pulled him into a kiss and pressed his butt, before letting him go. Tony then lit the candles that decorated the table and returned to the counter to pick up the plates, already arranged in his own way.

"Have I told you how sexy you look in this apron?"

"Honey, please. I'm sexy even wearing a potatoes' sack."

"Egocentric"

"Yeah, and you knew that when you agreed to date me." He said, serving dinner. Then Pepper took off her feet from the chair, so Tony could sit there.

"So, what are we having tonight?"

"Tonight we have grilled salmon, mashed potatoes and asparagus with herb sauce I learned to make watching a tutorial on YouTube, during my flight home. For dessert we have an box of aphrodisiac chocolates I bought in France... And after dinner we have a commitment upstairs that I like to call _sex until morning comes_."

"Interesting…" Pepper smiled, then drank some wine.

"Is it good enough for you?"

"Yeah...very good…" The woman was already horny only hearing how the night was going to be. Then she looked down and began to eat.

"If the food is crap, just tell me, and I order some pizza, or whatever you want." He said apprehensively.

"It's great. Thanks." She stroked his thigh, then Tony started eating. "So, did Maria tell you that…"

"Pep, the moment. Enjoy the moment."

"Oh, I am! And that's exactly why I have to talk about that now, since I know I will be very busy the next few hours…" She stroked his leg with her foot.

"Touché." Tony said, before biting an asparagus.

"So: did Maria tell you that the Stark Foundation is already prepared for cleaning in the damaged area?"

"She told me the Damage Control is there."

"They are. It is expected to them to release the area on Monday night. On Monday morning I'll have a final meeting with Stark Foundation staff, and they will all fly to Brazil soon after, so they can get some rest before starting work."

"And what will they do there?"

…

"...Plant local plants and trees, help in the restoration of the affected villages, distribute food and treat the water! I want a quick result, but first of all efficient, clean and safe. Be extremely careful with the water! The last thing we need are diseases spreading around. Remember that those who render medical care will be in Manaus for a few more weeks, making a monitoring to ensure that no one in the forest or in the city has caught some disease. Any question?" Pepper stared at the staff sitting around the table, and they all stayed in silence. Then she saw the meeting room door get slightly opened and Bambi put half of her body inside, calling the boss in silence. "We finished here." The CEO sat up and took her hands off the table, where she support herself. Then the Stark Foundation employees began to pick up their belongings and get up.

…

"What happened?" She asked, when approached Bambi.

"I thought you'd want to know that Mr. Stark is out there as Iron Man again."

"Again? But he called me from home, asking for Cheetos, 30 minutes ago!" Pepper took the starkpad the assistant handed her and watched Captain America, Iron Man and War Machine struggling with at least 10 giant robots in Manhattan. And she lost her breath when saw Tony being hit and thrown away by one of those robots.

…

" _They are called Dreadnoughts. At least that's what is written on each of them."_ Rhodes said on the phone, a few days later. " _Hard to reach; but when Vision came, everything became easier. Tony is the studying them in the lab. Don't worry! We are all watching him. We will not allow a Ultron 2.0. happen."_

"I'm sure he would not try to do this again…" Pepper said, putting some documents in a folder. "Do you think that was an Hydra payback, after you guys destroyed their hiding?"

" _We suppose so."_

"Don't you think they will try to hit Tony through me?"

" _No, but our eyes are open. At any sign of danger, someone will take you to a safe place."_

"Thank you for calling…" She sighed, closing a hologram of a chart with finance information from Stark Industries.

" _It was nothing. I knew you'd be worried, and that Tony is so focused on what he's doing that he don't remember to call you. Now you can sleep in peace. Or at least try."_

"I will." The woman took another sip of her coffee. "Thank you Rhodes."

" _Be safe, Pepper."_ He said, before hanging up.

…

The woman spent a few more hours stuck in Stark Mansion's office, working nonstop. That was necessary, as with the recent events, there were many problems to be solved. But it was also great to keep the mind busy and not think so much on the risks Tony was going through right that moment.

But over time, exhaustion spoke louder, and she had to take a break. Then she sent an last e-mail and left the office, decided that she would try to relax a little. Then she went to the cellar, suffering a bit to go through the mess and smell Tony left in the workshop, and chose a wine. And she was going to her room, when found Happy on the second floor living room.

"I was on the phone with Rhodes." She said, and the man turned his head to face her. "They're fine."

"Of course they're fine, they're the fucking Avengers…" He said, turning to face the tv. Then, with the voice command, he paused the movie he was watching; before looking back to the boss, who now had her back to him, standing at the window. "How are you?"

"I'll be fine…" That was all she said. Then he stared at her back for a moment longer, before returning to watch the film.

Pepper drank some wine, while watching out the window, which occupied an entire wall of the room. It could be seen the sky, the huge garden of the mansion, the road down the hill and led up to the gate, and many security guards walking everywhere.

Over time, her thoughts began to stray, and soon she wasn't seeing what was in her front, but the concerns and problems that probably would take her sleep one more night. So before it was too late, she pushed those thoughts and turned back, going to look at her friend:

"What are you watching?"

"Some documentary about dolphins. Popcorn?" He offered, raising his almost empty bucket.

"Thank you…" The woman sat beside him, took a handful and ate. "Did you drink all these energetics? And ate all these chips?" She asked, staring at the open cans and packages on the coffee table. "Happy, how's your heart?"

"I'm fine, don't worry."

"Oh, I'm worried!"

"Don't be. I'm great. Let's focus on you. That's my job, right?"

"Okay…"

"I really think we should go to a hiding."

"I hate being locked up in strange places, you know…" She drank some wine. "And Rhodes said we're safe. If there's the slightest sign of danger, we will be warned."

Then the woman's phone vibrated in her pocket.

"Is that a warning?" Happy alarmed.

"Probably not…" Pepper said, then lifted the phone to her friend, showing him the notification of a new voice message. "It's Tony."

"Oh...so I probably don't wanna hear this." He said a little embarrassed, and then filled his mouth with popcorn, facing the tv again.

"I'm going to my room…" She said, standing up. "You can sleep in any guest room, if you're going to get to sleep…" She looked at the empty energetic cans.

"That's the intention."

"You really should have some exams."

"In addition to the ones that the job requires me to do every year?" He complained, and the woman not even tried to argue.

"Good night, Happy."

"Good night." He replied; and watched her walking, until she was out of sight.

…

As soon as she was alone, Pepper played Tony's message; and heard it as she walked across the bedroom, going to the bathroom and beginning to prepare the bath:

"Pep, it's me. Sorry I only send you this message. I cannot call you, or the second I hear your voice, I would want to drop everything here and come back to you. But I can't do that. Work calls me. I'm sure you're following the news. There's some shit happening, and I can't go home right now. I can't put your life at risk. I'm sorry.

Changing the subject: why there's so many workers throughout the compound? I can't remember hearing you telling me that we would have a reform... You probably said it. Of course you said. Sorry for not remembering. Anyway, we can talk about this later. I love you.


	14. Chapter 14

When finished listening to the audio, the woman left the phone in the sink and started an internal conflict, not sure what she would do next.

Surely she would answer him. Tony interrupted his work to record the message and show her that he was alive. She wanted to reassure him and show that she was also fine.

The voice or video message options were definitely excluded, once Tony himself said he couldn't hear her voice, and the last thing Pepper wanted was to hurt him.

She could ask Friday to send a message, but it would be insensitive.

Then the best option remained.

At that point, the woman realized she couldn't hear the sound of gushing water anymore. So she looked at her side, and realized that the bath was ready. Immediately then she removed her clothes and got in the tub with the glass of wine in one hand and the phone in the other. And when she found herself comfortable, she started to type the Message:

She said she was fine, and hoped he was too. Also said that Stark Foundation and Damage Control were already operating in New York, and that the old working in the Amazon was progressing well. Said that the compound would be under a massive reform. Then asked him to be careful, to don't do anything stupid, and to be safe. And said she loved him.

And then, before it became a book, she sent the message.

…

"And that was the last time you talked to him? Honey, that was almost a month ago!"

"I know. But we can't keep getting in touch, it would be dangerous."

"You're right... Well, at least we know he's alive. Bad news never takes to long to arrive."

"He is fine. Friday is keeping me updated. She's just not allowed to tell me where he is…" Pepper said, while walking by her huge closet, selecting the clothes she would wear the next day.

"Are you sure you don't wanna cancel? I know you're strong and can handle this; but he never got gone for that long, and this time of the year is complicated... It's impossible not to think about the cave incident and…"

"He's not gone. He's just working." Pepper said, more to herself than to the person on the phone. "And I won't cancel. Who knows when I'll have another break…" She lamented.

"When was the last time you went on vacation?"

"Hmm...summer. Last year."

"That doesn't count, you worked all the time! I mean real vacation."

"I don't have time for this." Pepper said seriously. Then her phone vibrate and she pulled from her ear, to see what it was. That was Friday, displaying a video of Iron Man landing in the garage. She smiled relief.

"You **do** should arrange some time! You and Tony have worked too much, and experienced too many problems in recent years. You two need some rest; travel to somewhere quiet and forget, even for a moment, all the problems. You need...how Tony says...hmm...recharge the batteries! That's it."

While the person spoke in Pepper's ear, the redhead heard the bedroom door open and footsteps approaching. Then she looked to the side, to see Tony walking into the closet, leaning against the door and starting to stare at her.

"Hey." It was all he said.

"Hey…" She smiled solidarity, already counting the visible injuries on his face.

"With who are you talking to?" The person on the phone asked.

"Hmm... Mom, I have to go. Tony has just arrived, and he needs me."

"He's too bad?" Mrs. Potts asked worriedly.

"Yes…"

"So you're not coming tomorrow."

"No. Sorry, I'll have to cancel our plans."

"It's ok. I call you later. Send my wishes to Tony to get better soon."

"I will. Thanks. Good night." Pepper said, and hung up. "She's sending her wishes to you to get better soon."

"Thanks, but I'm fine."

"You have been thrown into a building as a squash ball. We know you're not fine. Where it hurts?" She asked, not knowing where she could touch him.

"Everywhere." Friday had to answer, since the man didn't open his mouth. The woman sighed.

"Come on. I'll help you to go to bed." She put his arm around her shoulder and her hand on his waist, serving as support.

"Ouch…"

"Sorry...Sorry…" She said, carrying him to bed. And after helping him to sit down, she took off his jacket, untied his tie and unbuttoned his shirt.

"Should I get a adhesive tape or a sling?" She asked, when saw the bruises everywhere.

"Amazingly, that won't be necessary. The bones of the arms were not damaged. The ribs are almost recovered. But there's a strong muscle tension in his back."

"Let me see." She asked when Tony caught her arms, preventing her from moving.

"I'm fine…"

"Not. But you will be, because I'm gonna help you. Now let me see it." She said firmly, and he finally let her go.

"Oh my God…" She said scared, seeing the state of his back.

"It was worse, but Dr. Cho closed his cuts." Friday said.

"And I'll thank her in person for that…" Pepper returned to stand in front of Tony, and then crouched down, starting to remove his shoes as looking at him in the eye. "How are your legs?"

"Better than my back." He was honest.

"Friday?"

"He's telling the truth."

"Okay…" The woman put her hands lightly on the sides of his thighs, barely touching them. "I'll get the first aid kit and a pair of pajamas for you, okay?"

"I'm sorry." Tony said quietly.

"What are you apologizing for?"

"For making you go through this again."

"Sincerely? As much as it hurts me to see you like that, I'd rather go through this than having to carry you drunk out of a bar. Because each of these bruises…" She stared at his black eye. "They came with you doing something good for society. And that makes me very proud of you, Iron Man…" Pepper smiled at him, and then deposited an extremely gentle kiss on his forehead, before walking away.

The woman returned a short time later, as promised, with pajamas and first aid kit. Until then, Tony had already taken off his pants, and she stared at his legs with a sad look, before helping him to put his sleeping pants.

"Here." She gave him a freezer bag. "For the eye."

"Thank you."

"Lie down on your front please."

"Okay…" He obeyed slowly, moaning a little. Pepper then sat down beside him and began to spend an ointment in strained his back muscles.

"What plans you cancelled with your mom?"

"I was going to spend the day with her tomorrow."

"Annual day off." He confirmed, finally realizing what day they were in.

"Annual day off…" The woman repeated, still massaging.

"Call her to come over."

"When you get better, maybe…"

"No…" He tried to get up, but she stopped him.

"Hey! That is not in discussion. Now stand still, so I can work."

"Sorry, I…"

"May you please stop with the apology? You have nothing to apologize for, none of this is your fault…" Pepper asked, and the man stayed in silence for a while.

"Hey…"

"Huh? Sorry, did I hurt you?" The woman asked worriedly, taking her hands from his back.

"No…"

"So what happened?"

"It's midnight. Happy birthday…"

"Oh... Thank you…" She smiled, but Tony didn't see it.

"Sorry for almost losing the date."

"It would be for a good cause…"

"And sorry for haven't bought you a gift." He said sadly, then the woman lay down beside him:

"You're here. Alive. There's no better gift than that." She said. Then she smiled at him, before kissing him on the lips. "How's your back?"

"Much better now, thank you." Tony replied, stroking her face with his forefinger. "It's your birthday. Call your mom, spend the day with her. It's not fair, she spends the entire year waiting for this day, for in the end, I ruin everything."

"She'll understand. She already understood." Pepper paused. "She said something to me on the phone...and I have to say she has a point…"

"What did she say?" Tony asked half asleep, due to the combination of back massage, hot thermal bag in the eye, plus the drugs he had taken earlier and were running through his veins.

"That we should travel. Rest a little."

"As we did in last year's summer?"

"Perhaps with fewer work commitments this time?"

"Are you talking about Iron Man?"

"I'm talking about the other commitments, the ones that don't involve Iron Man. You know I would never ask you to stop doing your work."

"Ok... And when would that be?"

"When things calm down at least a little?"

"Deal."

But the trip didn't happen so soon. Tony was always busy, either destroying a Hydra hiding in Bangladesh, following clues of Banner's whereabouts in India, destroying an arsenal of Stark Industries weapons in Detroid, and even following a news that UFO's were seen flying Phoenix, which went viral on Internet and was later discovered that was fake news. And so he still. Going back and forth. Apologizing for having stayed away from Pepper; and then spending as much time with her as possible. Until the next mission came, and the cycle was restarted.

Things calmed down only several months later, when Tony finally managed to get over two weeks at home. So before any mission arose, he and Pepper escaped to Italy, returning two weeks later.

When the pilotless jet of Stark Industries made stopover at JFK, Tony and Happy went off and left Pepper following the path with Bambi, that was waiting for them there. The woman would give a dinner at the mansion in Los Angeles that night, and while everything was organized there, Tony would try to work a little in the silence that the Avengers Tower was offering since the opening of the compound. Or that was what was in his plans, until his phone rang:

"Stark talking. Don't piss me off, I'm on vacation. You wouldn't know I'm in New York you weren't stalking me! What do you want? Just that? Okay. I can do that. And Hill? Adopt a cat. So you'll have seven lives to take care, instead of mine." He said and hung up. "Change of plans, Hap. To the compound."

"What happened now?"

"Hill asked me to do a hacker attack, to test the boys in charge of security. That will be fun."

"But you can do it while cleaning up your ass. Why cross the state?"

"Because I want to see how Vision is."

"Okay, grandpa…" Happy sighed.

"Don't call me that, people will think I'm old." Tony asked while typing on his phone, when then saw a figure reflected on the screen.

"And what do you think you are? A 24 years old big boy?"

"Hap, stop the car."

"I can't stop here, I'm gonna lock everyone! Can it be further forwar... Hey!" He was shocked to see Stark simply opening the door and jumping from the moving vehicle. Then he braked sharply and got out as well. "Are you crazy? Get in the car!" He shouted, competing with the honks and the shouting, typicals of the traffic of Queens. Tony paid no attention, because he was staring a guy jumping from one building to the other with the help of... He needed to activate the zoom of his special glasses to identify the... Webs? Synthetic, probably. Interesting technology. The kid was a genius, or worked for one. Kid, because he hasn't the physiognomy of a man. He must have been about 14, and was already playing the hero.

Great. All he needed at that time were problems caused by a teenager.

"Tony, get in the car!" Happy asked again, and since the boy was out of sight, he obeyed. Then the two followed the path, releasing the passage for the huge row of vehicles that formed behind.

…

"Home sweet home!" Stark deep breath the air, getting out of the car and watching the New Avengers compound, whose major reform was finally coming into its last legs.

"Do you need me for something?" Happy asked, closing the door.

"No. You can take a walk, watch a novel, or do whatever you do when you're alone."

"Ok."

"Ok. And... Hap?"

"Yes?" The security was almost entering the vehicle when he was called.

"I would like if our episode from just now stayed between us."

"Sure."

"Thank you." Tony gave two little slaps on his shoulder. "Go to the cafeteria! They make a delicious strawberry light pie here!" Then he turned his back and Happy got into the car, intending to drive it to the parking lot.

"Friday, you know what to do." He said as he entered the building.

"Cyber attack started."

"Find out to me where Vision is?"

"Sector 7, training room 4." She said, then Tony came hurriedly in an elevator, whose doors were closing, and winked at the employee who was inside it.

…

Vision was exactly where Friday had said. And his training was to complete a circuit performing multiple tasks at the same time, like handle a car in the air, turn off electronic devices telepathically, shooting in some holograms representing bandits who appeared from nowhere, not shooting in the ones that represented civilians, crossing objects and dodge paint bullets; all this while working his mind solving complicated questions asked by Helen Cho, or who else were watching. He seem to never get tired, and his costume, the car and the room conditions were proving that he didn't get distracted for even a second.

"Hey, son!" Tony said into the microphone, in a failed attempt to scare him.

"Mr. Stark!" He greeted him dodging from a bullet ink

"He didn't miss a target, didn't take a bullet... Nothing so far?" He asked as he hung up the microphone.

"Absolutely nothing." Said Dr. Cho, writing some data on her clipboard.

"If he were human, I would find it impressive." Said Rhodes, who was watching the training since early.

"If he were human, he couldn't do that." The woman pointed to the window, and they all saw Vision throw the car over a wall and cross it, before picking up the vehicle in time on the other side, at the same time a yellow light left the jewel of the mind and hit a pump, which was deactivated without suffering any damage.

"Mr. Stark?" An agent entered the room and handed him a starkpad, with a report on the newly solved hacker attack.

"Eight minutes, counting on the time you spent running from your room here. Good, considering the fact that the virus was mine, but still can improve. In eight minutes, and under the influence of alcohol, I got the nuclear codes, using an old computer in a computing room of an internal school in which the internet wasn't allowed to the students. I had to sleep with the teacher to gain access. Not that I'm complaining. Mrs. Campbell... She must be incredibly old today..." Tony wondered. "Anyway. You guys can get better, boy."

"I'll work for it, sir."

"Great. By the way, wasn't working what everyone should be doing?" Tony looked at his friend and the scientist, who were paying attention to his story. "Where is everybody?"

"Barton is at home, enjoying his children. The others left with the captain a few hours ago, I don't know where."

"Lagos." Helen answered, then noticed the men's look. "What? Shouldn't I know about that?"

"What are they doing in Lagos that they didn't call us?" Tony asked.

"I don't know."

"You don't know or you're pretending not to know, because you shouldn't know?"

"Why are you so interested, aren't you on vacation?"

"Touché." Tony then turned on the microphone and asked:

"What are they doing in Lagos?"

"Hunting for Crossbones and his group of mercenaries. The Captain has been looking for them for months."

"What the hell is the name 'Crossbones'?" James tried to understand.

"I know the guy." Stark was looking at a picture of the man on his phone. "Well, this is Captain's problem." He put the phone in his pocket and returned to the microphone. "They all gone? Even Wanda?"

Then Vision's muscles failed milimetrically, in the second in which the woman's name was quoted. But since it was so microscopic, humans couldn't notice.

"Yes. Even Wanda." He repeated, and shot five holograms. Then he flew over a huge hole, disengaging the paint cannons hidden in it, and carefully put the car on the finish line, finishing the circuit.

"42 seconds spiked. New record. Congratulations, Vision." Cho announced through the microphone.

"How long has he been here?" Tony asked.

"Since the others left."

"He spends a lot of time here."

"When he's not training with the others.."

"Or when he's not with Wanda..."

"Or when we're sleeping..."

"Or when he's not with you..."

"Or when he's not doing anything else..."

"He's here." James and Helen answered.

"He needs a break, and so do you. You!" Stark looked at Cho. "Go shopping, go to the Spa, whatever." Put it on my account."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark."

"And you and I are gonna go out." He said, squeezing Rhodes's shoulder.

"Tony, I just got back from my day off...

"So?"

"And there's still Pepper's dinner tonight..."

"We'll be there in time!" Tony told him. Then he turned the microphone back on and said:

"Wear something, son! We're going for a walk."


	15. Chapter 15

They started making the first big trip of Stark Industries' pilotless helicopter and arriving at Tokyo in record time. It was night, the city was lit, the party animals were in the streets, and no one noticed the red man walking between them.

The men played bowling, and it was a bit tricky dispute, since Vision perfectly calculated the moves and Tony and Rhodes abused the technology to not lose badly, as Happy lost.

Then they went to New Delhi, commanded by Rhodes, who wanted Indian food for lunch (or dinner, as they were in the middle of the night in local time).

"You took me from work to cross the planet and lose in bowling to a red guy. That's the least you can do." He said.

And after the meal, they returned to the United States.

...

"Ok, Vision! We have many floors underground; you, who like to cross things, will like here. Just beware, because Pepper and I will receive visit today. The house must be full." Tony warned him, as the group passed through the mansion's front door and was immediately scanned.

"Good evening, Mr. Stark, Colonel, Mr. Hogan, and... Oh... You brought the ex." Friday received them, and changed the voice tone when referring to Vision.

"You don't need to be jealous, okay?" Tony joked

"I'm not jealous."

"Honey, I'm home!" He yelled, but didn't hear Pepper's usual response.

"Miss. Potts is out." Friday said.

"Full House, right?" Rhodes joked. Then went straight to the kitchen, to look for something to eat.

"Where is she?"

"Washington D.C." She answered the same time than Happy.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Tony said looking at his friend.

"You didn't ask." The two responded. Happy shrugged.

"It was just what I needed…" He muttered, before pressing the shoulder of Vision, who was observing the house. "Let's go to the workshop. I'm gonna show you my toys."

...

"Total memory loss. Game over. Shall I restart the simulation?"

"Yes." Tony said, before drinking some green juice.

"I still don't understand why you're doing this, if the vermilion here can do the calculations for you in a second." Happy said, with a mouth full of chips.

"Because that would be cheating." He said, focused on the holographic calculations ahead.

"I also wouldn't do it. I don't trust a lot in machines since Ultron. No offense." Rhodes looked at Vision to say.

"No offended."

"Got it." Tony used his forefinger to write a new holographic algorithm.

"The attempt went successful. Finally."Friday announced and he punched the air. "Miss. Potts is calling for dinner."

"Tell her I'll go in a minute." He replied, then noticed that his friends were already leaving. One of them in a way considered unusual in that house.

"Vision?" Tony called the man who went up toward the ceiling.

"Yes sir?"

"Doors."

"Yes sir."

So he set foot on the floor and walked to the exit.

...

A small area of the huge garden of the mansion was marked by Pepper, to host the event. In the center of the marked area was a table, decorated with candles and flowers. And in a corner, a band was playing classic tunes and adapted versions of actual songs, keeping the calm weather, matching with the moment.

Fairy Lights and various types of flowers adorned the entire place; and as the weather was great, there was no need of mounting a tent. That night the guests would have a view of the moon shining in the full of stars and cloud-free sky.

"Look who is joining us tonight…" Pepper's mother was surprised to see Tony finally coming to the garden, after wearing a tuxedo. "You will join us, won't you?"

"Ma'am, I'm so into this dinner as Friday's jealous of Vision." He said and kissed her hand, before sitting down next to his girlfriend and kiss her on the lips, ignoring the "I'm not jealous" he heard in the communicator in his ear.

"By the way, where is he?" Rhodes asked.

"Must be crossing walls around there." Happy bit a breadstick.

"Which one is Vision?" Mrs. Potts asked.

"The humanoid that Dr. Cho created." Pepper said.

"And we improved using J.A.R.V.I.S.' operation matrix." Tony added.

"The red dude." Happy went straight.

"Oh! Yes…" She finally remembered. "There are so many strange names...this is too much for me. I can only remember of Captain America, because I had a crush on him when I was younger…"

"Disgusting." Tony took a sip of water to say.

"...and Thor, because of the books I used to read to Virginia when she was a child. But I can't remember anyone else... Not even you... " She said, looking at Rhodes. "James!? What is your superhero name? I can only remember that it's something very violent, and I prefer the name Iron Patriot."

"Only you." Tony said.

"Me and the President of the United States, dear, don't forget the President of the United States." She corrected him.

"I could never." Stark smiled, before returning to play with the strap of Pepper's dress.

"The name is War Machine, ma'am." Rhodes replied with a smile.

"I said that that was violent." She raised her eyebrows, then looked at the man in front of her. "And what is your superhero name, Anthony?"

"You're kidding, right?" Tony stopped what he was doing to look at her seriously.

"Of course I'm kidding, you have been in the news every single day, since 2008. It would be impossible not to know Iron Man, even if he were not dating my daughter…" She said, before drinking a bit of wine. "So, where is Vision? I'm gonna meet him? I would like to thank him for everything he has done since Sokovia. He's a good man. Or machine. I really don't know how to call him…" She sighed. Then she noticed that Tony's face had gone dark after hearing the word 'Sokovia'. "Oh my God, I'm sorry... I'm sorry I reminded you that…"

"To remember something you must have forgotten before." It was all he said. Pepper kissed his shoulder and stroked his face, without saying anything. "Where's the food, I'm starving!" He complained; and then the waiters began to arrive.

"So, darling, how was in Washington?" Mrs. Potts asked, trying to revive the dinner.

"Excellent! We got all the permits and contracts. Everything is alright. We'll start next month, at MIT." Pepper responded enthusiastically, while the entrance was served. "Maria and I prepared a presentation test, and I would like if you guys were my guinea pigs, if you don't mind."

"I'm totally in!"

"I'm in."

"Of course!"

"I can even piss you off as disinterested teenager."

"You already do this normally, Tony." Rhodes reminded him, and Happy laughed.

"Hilarious." Stark answered seriously.

"Anthony, are you still working on that invention that removes traumatic memories?" Mrs. Potts asked, before taking some food to her mouth.

"It's almost ready. I'm late on the delivery date, because I have been very busy as Iron Man, but…"

"It's better to delay the date and get everything finished well then deliver it on time, but hastily, and end suffering something irreversible." Pepper repeated what she had already said several times to him.

"Said the boss!" Tony smiled, caressing his girlfriend's shoulder.

"But will you still be able to present it at MIT?"

"Definitely yes." He assured, before drinking some wine. "Why are you so interested in the BARF? Do you have any memories that you want to get rid of?"

"First of all, I would like to forget having known the name you gave to this thing."

"We're working to develop a better acronym." Pepper assured.

"Thank you. And of course I have some traumas that I would like to get rid of! Not that I'll use this thing, of course. I'm too afraid to do it." She ate some more. "Don't you think this thing will take the job of therapists?"

"It won't. But it will make me save a lot of money." Tony opened his free arm, before returning to hold the fork. "Now that money can be directed to something that really matters: our intelli-crops, the Stark Foundation, and of course, the September Foundation." He finished, and then took some food to his mouth.

"Your health is also important." Pepper reminded him.

"She is right. You have to care a little more of yourself, man." Rhodes pointed him with his fork.

"I'm great."

"Are you? Tell me: When was the last time you had some sleep?"

"Einstein slept 3 hours per day."

"Yeah, but guess what!? You're not Einstein!" Happy snapped.

"You should see a doctor, Anthony. Going without sleep is not healthy."

"So now this turned into a conspiracy against me?" He got annoyed "I said I'm fine!"

"Is not what your exams say."

"And what your exams say, Happy?" He snapped.

"Enough!" Pepper said, then softened her voice tone to look directly at the partner. "We're just worried about you."

"There's no need. I'm great." He assured. Then the woman sighed and smiled weakly, before depositing a kiss on his cheek.

So everyone's attention went to Mrs. Potts, who shouted:

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Staring frightened the red man who was crossing the center of the table.

So Tony and Pepper sighed, preparing the sermon...

...

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"You know very well that sleep is not part of my routine." Tony said as he entered the workshop, after leaving a sleeping Pepper in the bedroom. "Did you get what I asked?"

"In images from security cameras and amateur videos." Friday then exhibited, at the same time, videos of a guy dressed in red and with strange glasses holding four men in a large spider web in a building; jumping web to web in a bridge in Queens; launching a web on a guy who was about to rob an old lady; and stopping a runaway car with his bare hands, preventing it slammed into a bus.

"That's him. The Human Spider... He must be about 5' 6", how much do you think he weighs? About 140 lbs, right? He's a stick…" Tony stroked his goatee. "Search the boys in this range of weight and height in New York." Then thousands of results came around. "Remove all that has more than 30 years." The number reduced. "Now remove those who are under 14 years." Then only a few hundred left. "Wow! These kids today are tall!" He started walking between the photos and information that lasted from the search. "Which of you is the Spider-Kid and why don't you wear a better costume... Because you're poor, or you would had money to make a decent costume, remove the rich." He ordered, and the number decreased slightly. "Okay, now keep an eye on these."

"Stalker Alert…" Friday joked.

"The stalker here is you." Tony responded, then threw himself on a chair, which slided to the table where his glasses were ready to receive some changes. "Keep an eye on them, and when the spider who fights crime appear, get the alibi of all. The one who doesn't have one must be our friend."

...

Tony worked for a while, before finally returning to the room. And when he got there, he closed the door carefully and did very well measured steps, trying not to wake the woman who was in bed.

"Is everything okay?" She asked when he stood under the sheets, proving that his plan went not successful. He sighed.

"Yeah, I was only drinking a glass of water and I ended up making a stop in the workshop. Insomnia." He explained. So the woman came close to him and began to caress his hair."

"What are you thinking on, that is taking your sleep?"

"Nothing." He lied, still thinking about the spider from Queens.

"Are you sure? Because I can hear your mind working from here."

"Everything is fine."

"Ok…" Pepper sighed, knowing that, whatever was going on, the man didn't want her to know. "So I guess I'll just help you sleep... "

"I have a better idea." Tony looked up and leered. "How about I help you not to sleep...?" He suggested.

Then Pepper smiled and kissed him, pressing their bodies as much as possible.

They exchanged kisses for a while, until the man turned their bodies, making the woman stay over him. Immediately then she began to shake on his lap, while still kissing him, leaving him increasingly excited. He pressed the side of her ass, before climbing his hands to the bar of her shirt and start pulling it.

"Wait." Pepper stopped moving and held his hands when said.

"What? Did i do something wrong?" He asked worried.

"Where is Vision?"

"I asked him to go for a walk, don't worry…" He assured, before starting to kiss her neck.

"So you were planning this?" She asked breathlessly.

"Would you believe if I say I wasn't?" Tony asked.

Pepper then pulled his face and kissed him on the lips, continuing from where they had stop.

Tony again tried to take the woman's shirt off, succeeding this time. Then he threw it on the edge of the bed and sat down, starting to kiss and bite Pepper's neck, as he drove her movements against the volume in his pants.

Pepper took off his shirt and hastily threw far away, then going to scratch the back and shoulders of the man, as she kissed and moaned on his lips.

Still kissing, Tony began to gently push the woman, until they lay on the mattress. Then he pulled his lips from hers, and the woman initially complained; but stopped when she felt his lips kissing her neck. Then the shoulders, the breasts, the belly...

And she struggled to hold the scream that nearly left her lips, when Tony pulled her shorts and panties and his lips came between her legs.

Tony began playing with his tongue and fingers there, exploring every point that he knew that would let her completely crazy. And indeed, he let.

Pepper pressed the sheets with a incredible strength, but when she transferred her hands to the top of Tony's head, they were already more relaxed. After all, she didn't want to hurt him.

And so they remained. The woman moaning down; often the name of the man, who was with his mouth too busy to say anything. Until Pepper exploded in pleasure and her body went limp in complete ecstasy. She then began to take deep breath, trying to catch the air.

When finished, Tony ran the back of his hand through his lips; and barely gave a recovery time to Pepper, immediately starting to kiss her again throughout her entire body, going on the opposite direction of the previous one, and ending with a kiss on the lips that made her blush. Only then he walked away and sat across from her, watching her with passion and enjoying the moment she was recovering to recover as well..

"Are you alright?"

"I'm great…" Pepper smiled at him, still with her face flushed. He smiled back, admiring her

"What?" She asked, caressing his chest with her foot.

"Nothing. I just love you." He hold her foot to kiss it, and released it when the woman got up, going to sit on his lap, her legs around his thighs. Then she put her arms around his shoulders and kissed him on the lips.

"I love you…" She said, looking at him in the eye. Then they exchanged a few more kisses, starting all over again.

When the air was missing, they were forced to move away. Pepper then started kissing Tony's neck and made them lay down, this time, with her over him.

"How long we have until Vision returns?"

"Until dawn."

"So your plan is to get me exhausted enough to not get back to work tomorrow?"

"In fact, that's a good idea…" He said weakly. "But, hey! I wasn't planning it! I asked Vision to leave because your mother is here. You saw her at dinner; how many shocks like that you think she could handle before she had a heart atta…" In the middle of the sentence, his mouth got busy.

"Honey, the moment. Enjoy the moment …" Pepper said what he always said to her, her lips glued to his. Then she broke the kiss and began to slide down, taking his pants with her.

...

It was late at night. Pepper slept peacefully, with her arm resting on Tony's waist, who were moving a bit during sleep. And both woke up in shock when Friday's voice came out of nowhere, scaring the two:

"Boss, we have an emergency!"

"What!?" He sat with fright, then looked at Pepper, who also got up scared and breathless at his side. "Pep?" He caressed her back.

"I think... I'll never get used to it…" She replied, with curved body and eyes closed.

"What's the emergency?" He asked as he got out of bed, checking if he really had put his pants on before bed. Then he picked up the communicator that was on the bedside table and put it in his ear; and then he took the shirt that Pepper had thrown on the floor earlier, wearing it while walking.

"There was a chase in the Avengers mission in Lagos, and in the end, Crossbones exploded. Scarlet Witch tried to contain the situation, but dozens of people ended up dying."

"Call Vision."

"He is already flying to Lagos." Friday reported, while Tony filled a glass of water in a hurry, and then squat down and gave it to Pepper.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes." She took the water and drank some. "You should go. There are people needing you out there."

"I'm sorry..." He said sad.

"Go…" She pushed him powerless. Then the man stood up and placed a kiss on her hair, before run.


	16. Chapter 16

A few days later...

"I can't, I'm stuck in New York right now!" Pepper said on the phone, getting out of the helicopter. "I just left my business lunch at the capitol, and now I have issues to resolve at the compound. I'm just going back to Los Angeles at the end of the day, you'll have to replace me at this meeting! Put me in a voice call when you get there. Voice call, not video. I don't want people to know about this place. How soon can you do this? Great. I'll be waiting for your call. Thank you, Bambi." She hung up, walking through the entrance gates of the main block of the compound.

"Good afternoon Boss. Where's Happy? Did something happen?" Maria Hill received her in the lobby, so the two began to walk.

"He's taking my mom home. Everything is fine." Pepper said, taking the starkpad the agent delivered her. "On the other hand, at Stark Industries, there's a senator demanding an emergency meeting with me and representatives of the Stark Foundation, to talk about Lagos. "

"And what else could you talk about?"

"Well, many people died. This is not something that people will stop talking so soon, and they're totally right."

"Speaking which, how was lunch with the King of Wakanda?"

"It was excellent. He's a good man. Has a big heart and a brilliant mind. We had a really great conversation. And he told me he's in New York for a meeting with ONU…"

"Wait, ONU? Something is happening. I'll keep my eyes open."

"Please, do it." They strayed from workers carrying a huge box on a stand. "And how are things here?"

"Everyone is shaken after Lagos. But none is physically injured. Tony is working since he came…"

"Did he eat something?"

"Wanda and Vision take something to him from time to time. They like to cook together."

"It's a good distraction."

"Better than isolate yourself in a basement and build an army of robots." Hill was sincere, and Pepper sighed. "And the construction here is about 98% complete! Finally…" She took a deep breath. "That was a big one."

"Well, it would be faster if everyone had left here and gone back to work in the tower for a while…"

"Manhattan is too chaotic."

"Chaos always follows us, no matter where we are." Pepper gave the starkpad back after finished reading the latest report about the progress of the work that Stark Foundation was doing in the capital of Nigeria.

"Yeah, you got a point." Hill blocked the starkpad screen. "The installations of the new security cameras have started now."

"Great! Let's see if it will prevent mysterious cases, like the one last summer, happen again."

"Speaking which…" Hill murmured; then Pepper looked at her assistant and saw the Avenger walking at short distance.

"Hmm... Sam?" She called him, and he turned toward her. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure…" The man looked up and down at the woman, who was walking toward him. "Stark is in his cave, if you're looking for him."

"Oh, I'm not here for that…" She gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry about Lagos."

"Shit happens. We can't always save everyone, is part of the job. Wanda is who is most suffering about it, but Vision is with her."

"Yeah, Hill told me…" Pepper said sadly, then pulled herself together, before changing the subject. "I heard about the performance of your drone in Lagos. Redwing, am I correct?"

"Yes."

"Right. So I got something for you…" She opened the briefcase that was in her hand since she got out of the helicopter and took a card. "It's a free pass to Fukijuana, one of our subsidiaries. They are experts in HUD's, and the responsibles for all the Iron Man ones. So if you want to take a look at their technology and see if there's something that can help you improve your work…"

"Thank you." He accepted the card.

"You're welcome." She smiled, then her phone started vibrating. It was Bambi. "Sorry, I'll have to answer."

"Oh, ok." The man raised his hand. "Thank you again."

"If you need anything, let me know." She shook his hand, before moving away from him, answering the phone. "Good afternoon, Senator. Here is Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. How can I help you?"

...

"Stark!" Sam shouted, reaching the workshop.

"What!?" He dropped the tools and looked at the working partner on full alert.

"You're a true idiot, aren't you?"

"You found it out just now?" Natasha asked, amid a sip of her shake.

"Done of offending me already?" Tony complained. "What did I do now?"

"How can you have a woman like that in Los Angeles and still spends days in the other side of the country, with a red dude and computers? What is wrong with you?"

"Why does everyone ask me that after see Pepper? Wait, she's here?"

"Yes! And I have to say it again, she's even more beautiful in person than on TV or in those magazines that the girls in the offices like to read."

"Why is she here?"

"I don't know, we didn't talk too much. She was talking to a senator on the phone."

"Friday?"

"She's here to resolve contractual issues and all the paperwork that you never solves, boss." She answered; Stark then made a quick motion with his head, saying "touché" mentally.

"Tony, Sam is right." Said Natasha. "Pepper is one of the best things that happened in your life, and you're always a country away from her, at least. Have you ever stopped to think that she can not stand it much longer?"

"You should enjoy her. No one knows what tomorrow holds." Steve thought of himself and Peggy Carter to say.

"Okay, anyone else wants to make a statement about my relationship with Pepper?" Stark lost his temper, and everyone fell silent. "Great." He took the tools and went back to work.

...

"And then he exploded, that mother…"

"Language." Pepper and Steve said at the same time.

"Fudger." Natasha smiled at the two.

"You forgot to tell the part where I kill all those people." Wanda said, with dark and vacant stare, non stop thinking about the terrible events.

"You had no guilt." Vision put a hand on her shoulder.

"If that bomb had exploded on the ground, it would have killed many more people, in addition to Rogers." Natasha said.

"We can't always save everyone." Steve himself said.

"The ills of our work…" Sam sighed exhausted, resting his head on the back of the sofa.

"So, Pepper, are you still coming back to Los Angeles?" Wanda changed the subject, since, however much their partners tried to defend her, her opinion would not change. She was guilty.

"Yes. I'm just waiting for Maria." Pepper replied with a small smile, as she shelved a last document in her briefcase. Then she picked up her cup of coffee on the coffee table and took a sip. "Oh, there she is!" She said after swallowing the drink, seeing the agent getting upstairs.

"The car is ready. Happy will meet you at the airport." Hill reported after reaching the room.

"Did you bring what I asked?" Pepper asked, as she let the empty cup on the coffee table and stood up from her armchair.

"Yep." She lifted the paper bag she was holding, and her boss changed it for the folder full of documents reviewed and signed.

"Thank you. I'll meet you in a few minutes."

...

Tony was isolated in the laboratory, for who knows how many hours, working on the adaptation of his glasses, which would serve as tool for operating the BAFO. He was handling the delicate pieces of the object with such concentration that did not notice the door get open, or simply ignored it, not allowing himself to get distracted.

"We're going back to LA, you come?"

"Hmm..."

"I thought so." Pepper looked serious at the man, but then her attention went to what he was doing. "Is this part of BARF?"

"Hmm..."

"Can you say something different than 'Hmm...'?"

"Hmm..." He repeated, and she sighed.

"Alright... Here's your dinner." She left the paper bag on the table. And when Tony finally looked around, the woman was no longer there.


	17. Chapter 17

" _You guys are not gonna split off, are you?"_ Mrs. Potts asked; her voice coming out of her daughter's headphones. " _You two spend all those years in that spiel to this relationship end like this?"_

"You really should stop reading gossip magazines…" Pepper replied calmly, while walking along the edge of the private beach nearby the Stark mansion. Happy followed her in silence, a few steps behind.

" _Believe me, I agree. But I think that, this time, they are not exaggerating. Anyone can see that you are not ok._ " Wanda paused. " _I know you don't usually talk much about this. But if you want to..._ " She left the offer in the air. And she had already given the subject as closed, when her daughter began to speak

"I admit that we're not at our best moment. We were fine until there was that problem in Washington and he restarted to work alone in the workshop, or as Iron Man, alltime. Then came Ultron, and all the problems that came with it; and all this snowball that just keeps growing…"

" _But you're trying to make it work, right? I mean, that dinner at your house? That was the first time I saw you two together in a long time. But you looked good."_

"Because that was my moment."

"What do you mean?"

"Look, when... Tony is doing something, he's just doing this thing."

" _I thought he had ADHD."_

"He does, but the pills he takes are very helpful. What I'm trying to say is... When Tony is doing something, he put all of himself in this thing, and nothing else. When he's with me, he gives me his full attention. And these moments are wonderful... until someone needs him out there."

" _And then he leaves you alone until he get a break with Iron Man."_

"And I'll never criticize him for that. Quite the opposite." Pepper drank some water. "Look... I dumped up a lot of things, and did things that were definitely not in my plans, so he could be Iron Man. If there's a person who fully supports him, that's me. Often I end up being the only one."

" _There's no mid-term_ _?"_

"We tried that. But bad things happen when Iron Man and I get too close…" pepper's expression darkened, remembering the moments of terror when they attacked the mansion and Tony was presumed dead; and then Tony's face when he couldn't prevent her from falling in a free fall and be engulfed by flames."

" _Because of the bad guys, I got it. But be honest: have you ever thought, even for a second, about breaking up with him?"_

"I won't lie, I thought so. Several times. But that's not what I want. I love him too much, and I'm sure the feeling is mutual. What is happening is that we are going through a crisis …"

" _It took time for you two to have a crisis."_

"... A global crisis that, yes, eventually affected our relationship. But when the dust finally get down, we're gonna fix this, as always. We just need to find a way to hold on until then…" She sighed and drank some water, knowing that on the other side of the line, her mother wore a worried look.

…

"...Pep Pep!" Tony tried to wake her, shaking her arm.

"What!? Did something happen!?" She asked in alarm and tried to get up, but Tony held on her shoulders.

"Calm down, everything is okay." He tried to reassure her.

"Since when are you home?"

"Since...I don't know, about three hours ago?"

"And why did you wake me at…" She checked the clock on the bedside table. "2 in the morning?"

"It worked. The BARF worked!"

"What was the need to wake me up in the middle of the night when you could just tell me in the morning?"

"So you don't wanna see it?" He asked with raised eyebrows. Then the woman stared at him for a few seconds, before getting rid of the sheets in a hurry.

…

"Ok! We don't have the local scene in the original scale, because apparently, even being the owner of everything, I need to talk to a certain Carl to use Stark Industries 3D printer. So I made a smaller version with our home printer for you to send to this Carl…" Tony then introduced Pepper a model of what was the piano room of his parents' mansion. "And I show the first performance with the projectors only. It will seem just like another hologram, but it's not bad for the first time. I don't need to explain again how it works, do I?"

"No…" She murmured, her mouth in a glass of ice-cold water. Then Tony took his glasses off a table and stared at them for a while, before wearing them.

The sides of the glasses lit up. Then four projectors with foot, created especially for that experiment and placed in what would be the points of an imaginary rectangle, got activated.

Then Maria Stark singing 'Try to Remember' while playing piano, appeared in front of Pepper, who nearly left the cup in her hand fall in the ground, not believing what she saw.

The projection was in original size and colors. It would be as if the real room of the Stark's, if there couldn't be seen the cars, motorcycles, walls, modern computers, lights and windows of the workshop. And Tony, who was watching in silence, behind a holographic wall.

When the room's objects were shaped by the 3D printer of Stark Industries, would no longer be possible to see something out of the place where the memory was playing, and it would become more real and interactive. People could watch the scene sitting on the piano, for example.

Pepper watched the entire length of the hologram and realized that her mother-in-law wasn't alone. Someone was sprawled on the couch, with a blanket covering the body from head to toe.

It was Tony. She knew it was Tony. And while she admired the younger version of her boyfriend and the beautiful song that her mother-in-law played, Howard Stark entered the holographic room and pulled the blanket from his son's face...

…

"Woah…" It was all that Pepper could say, when the altered memory finished playing.

"I know." The man said, before drinking a shot of whiskey. "I chose this memory because this song my mother sang speaks of September, which can serve as reference to September Foundation. And also because that was the last time I saw my parents. Alive." He took off his glasses, then the hologram started getting undoing from the bottom up, gradually. "Or that's how I wish it happened."

Pepper got out of the hood of the car she was sitting and crossed the garage, passing the top of her messy hair through what was left of a holographic window, to get Tony. Then she hugged him with all affection, being reciprocated in the same way. Then she looked into his eyes and began to caress his face:

"How do you feel?"

"With a not-that-bad conscience. But it won't change the fact that I didn't say goodbye that night, or that the fucking accident happened." He took his hand off the woman's waist to drink the final sip of his drink, but then returned to its previous position.

"We can't change the past, but we can learn from our mistakes and do differently in the future. Your father would be proud of the person you became, as well as your mother."

"She was beautiful, wasn't she?" He smiled.

"Yes. And a great singer as well." Pepper transferred the affection to his shoulders. "Now... About that Mister Softee t-shirt…"

"You're not gonna tell me that you got horny by that, right?" Tony was already making plans to buy another shirt like that, since the old one was who knows where.

"No! No way, quite the contrary…" She grimaced, and they laughed. Until...

"Boss, I found the target. Name: Peter Parker. 15 years old, resident of Queens, and the only one without an alibi during the most recent appearance of the spider." Friday broke the moment; then images and informations of the boy appeared in the air, attracting the attention of the two.

"Who is Peter Parker?" Pepper asked seriously, facing Tony again.

"Hmm... One of the New York boys I'm watching." He unbraced the woman and walked to the information while saying.

"Why are you watching New York boys?"

"Friday, show her." So videos of the spider boy were shown.

"You're not gonna invite him to be an Avenger, are you?" Pepper asked after watch them. "Tony, he's just a kid!"

"Hmm... he has excellent school grades... The kid is smart…" The man said, observing all of Parker's information. "He lives with his aunt, who is too hot to be someone's aunt... His parents are dead, the uncle followed the same path…"

"You're not listening to me, are you?" The woman asked, looking at his back.

"Friday, keep an eye on this kid. We need to make sure that is him." Tony was still reading parker's information, totally oblivious to the world around, as Pepper knew. Then she left her glass on the bar and up the stairs, intending to go back to bed.

…

"Your 10:00 commitment arrived earlier. Do you want to anticipate it?" Friday asked, displaying information on the clock of Pepper, who looked at it as walking around the corridors of Stark Industries, after speaking to Carl, the responsible for the 3D printing department of the company.

"Yes, please. And tell Tony that I already ordered his request." She replied and smiled at Bambi, who approached with exactly what she needed after a sleepless night: coffee. "Thank you…"

"You're welcome, boss." She smiled back, giving her the cup. "Once you're anticipating Mr. Jones, so then you'll be free until 10:40. Unless you also want to anticipate the 10:45 meeting."

"Keep it as it is. I will use this free time to make some calls."

"Yes, boss."

"Where is Hill?"

"In New York, as well as Mr. Stark. But there's nothing happening, they're just... there." Bambi tried to reassure her boss, that looked frightened. "Do you think he will attend the lunch with the dean of the California College of Science next week? For now, I'm keeping the option open, but I can cancel at any time."

"He probably won't." Pepper said, watching Happy overcome to search the visitor, rector of the Florida Institute of Technology. "Keep an eye on the news. If anything happens to Tony or the Avengers, let me know immediately, even if you have to stop something."

"Yes, boss."

"Mr. Jones! Thank you for coming from so far." She smiled at the visitor, pulling Happy away affectionately. "Follow me to my office, I'm eager to talk to you about the September Foundation…"


	18. Chapter 18

" _How is she?" He asked watching the girl lying in the hospital bed; her body filled with tubes and wires connected to devices. It was all in Norwegian, he couldn't understand anything._

" _Better now that she's sleeping in peace, out of all the chaos that_ _ **you**_ _brought to her life and of all of us!" The girl's father exploded in anger only with the presence of the billionaire._

" _If there's anything I can do; pay the hospital, a future treatment, medication, even a financial restitution…"_

" _You've done enough." The man spat. "I want you to get out of here! And get out of our lives!" He shouted, getting the attention of the nurses who were there._

" _Sir, I must remind you that we are in a hospital. Please control yourself." One of them asked, putting his hand on the shoulder of the man, who pulled him away in fury._

" _Control myself? How could I control myself? This man destroyed my daughter's life, destroyed the life of my family!" He pointed to Stark as saying._

" _Mr. Stark, I think that it would be better if you leave." Another nurse asked him politely. Tony then stopped looking at the man who pointed him and waved quickly to the employee, before taking one last look at the girl and walking toward the exit._

" _Yes! Make a mess and turn your back, as you always do!"_

" _Sr, if you keep yelling, I will have to ask you to leave."_

" _Put your dirty money in your fucking ass and never come back here!"_

 _..._

"Stark? Stark?"

"Uh? What?" He awoke from his thoughts and found himself in his workshop, at the compound.

"I was about to throw this at you." Wanda lifted a bowl of some Russian soup.

"I appreciate you didn't." He looked at her, still kinda lost. "Is this for me?" He asked, realizing that he was starving.

"Yes. Borsch." She handed him the bowl.

"Thank you, Wanda." He said, before attacking the red soup.

"You're welcome." She smiled weakly and turned toward the exit. "Do you know how long you've been here?" She asked, holding the doorknob.

"Two weeks?" Tony asked, cleaning his mouth with his arm. Then Wanda clenched her lips before answering:

"Check a calendar."

Then closed the door.

...

 _Weeks before ..._

" _I'm right over them! The 42th street is blocked, they will have to go through the 105th!"_

" _Copy that." Tony then changed his course, going to the exact spot where Rhodes and the target would have to go. A few seconds later, an ice cream truck came running towards him; and he had a plan to stop it._

" _Tony, they are in high speed, if you shoot the tires they will fly away! There's no time to clean the street!" James warned the friend when saw him lifting the palms of his hands._

" _I know that." He replied seriously. Then shot the front tires of the truck, which rose in the air with the back up, about to roll over. Until Vision appeared and held the vehicle, preventing future damages._

" _It would have been wiser if you had allowed me to turn off the engine." The humanoid scolded._

" _And miss all the fun?" Tony asked, landing and watching the partner work._

 _Vision put the vehicle on the ground carefully and soon went front to the driver's door, blocking the exit there. The men tried to leave from the passenger door, running into Stark on the way._

" _Going somewhere?" Then one of them turned back, hitting his head on Rhodes suit. "I don't think so." He said, and Vision disabled the weapons made with parts of Ultron that the two bandits carried. They fell in the ground like the piece of scrap they were now._

" _Here's the thing!" James raised a hand to say. "You have two options: either surrender and wait for the FBI like good kids, or we will be forced to carry you by foot. And we're not gonna be responsibles if you fall down from 10,000 feet because of not well tied shoes."_

" _Rhodey, this one is with untied shoes!" Tony pointed to the man nearest him. "Your parents never teached you how to tie your shoes?"_

" _And yours teached you? Oh, I forgot. They are dead!" The man replied, and Tony freezed for a moment. Time enough for a third man leave the truck back and run away from there._

" _Vision!" He shouted, while he and Rhodes pressed the two men against the vehicle. "You should have kept your mouth shut." He said, raising his arm and throwing special cuffs at the wrists and ankles of the bandit. Rhodes did the same with the other, and again, when vision returned to the third._

" _What you deserve is coming for you, Stark." The man threatened with the cheek glued to the truck._

" _And what's coming for me is a nice hot bath and a good night of sleep in a soft bed, next to my hot girlfriend and her butt worthy of a volleyball player, in my huge mansion in Malibu. While what's coming for you is a cold shower and a hard bed, next to a group of smelly men at any state jail. Well,_ _ **I**_ _have nothing to complain about." Tony smiled behind his mask, and then there could be heard the sirens of the vehicles approaching._

…

" _... Then we find out that their bases are…" Rhodes pressed a key on the digital keyboard table, and several red spots appeared along the huge hologram of the territory of the United States._ " _Everywhere. And all full of alien and Avenger technology, robbed of places where battles happened."_

" _How did you guys get this information?" Asked the FBI agent in charge of the situation._

" _That was easy. One of them had dirty pants of fearing Vision. All we need to do was to present them." Hill said, and the agent looked at the red man up and down._

" _And what are they? Hydra?"_ T _he partner of the agent asked, without taking his eyes from the map._

" _An independent group."_

" _Ok…" The agent sighed. "Search and seizure. 30 of ours at each location. And call the Damage Control. Go!" She ordered, and two agents who were standing there left immediately to inform the new mission to the others._ " _Why are you doing this?"_ T _he woman faced the group of heroes._ "I t _hought cases like that were well below the Avengers level."_

" _And they are. But you were taking too long." Hill replied._

" _Dubai!" Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at the agent, breaking his silence suddenly. Everyone stared at him, not understanding anything. "1997, right?"_

" _What? When you slept with me?" She asked with raised eyebrows._

" _You slept with her?" The agent's partner asked._

" _I slept with a lot of people." Then Tony stared at the woman. "I got it, right?"_

" _Yes." She was forced to admit. "Dubai, May 15, 1997. Rainy day, we swim naked in the outdoor pool. I caught a cold, and the next morning you gave me a kick in the ass, claiming you couldn't get sick, because you had an important appointment ahead. Can you tell me what appointment was that?"_

" _An orgy with Dutch twins." It was his time to admit. "Sorry, I was kinda stupid that time."_

" _Was?" The woman repeated what he said. "Can you tell me how's your girlfriend, Stark?"_

 _He was silent._

" _That's what I thought." Then she looked at the people staring at her. "You're all dispensed."_

 _She was right. Tony had no idea how Pepper was. He knew she was ok, or someone would have warned him. But if she traveled, she caught a cold or what she had for dinner the night before, he had no idea. And as much as he wanted to know, and be part of everything (maybe not of the hypothetical cold), work was calling him. He couldn't stop. So he would have to find a way to fix that. He would try to have some time with her in the first break he get, as usual._

 _But that break never came._

" _... I asked them to leave everything downstairs. It's all complete and in the correct scale. Your parents' living room is, literally, into pieces in our garage." Pepper told on the phone._

" _Hmm..." He murmured, while doing calculations in a hologram in front of him._

" _You haven't heard a single word of what I said, right?"_

…

" _Will you go to the business lunch with the dean of the_ _California College of Science"_

" _Nop!" He said while testing a new suit, going through the atmosphere._

...

" _I need you to…"_

" _Not...now...honey." He had difficulty responding, trying to take a car over his totally damaged suit._

…

" _...So when the ATCU called me I said that the Avengers…"_

" _Friday, tell Wanda, Rhodes, Romanoff and Vision to wear a coat and meet me in quinjet in 5 minutes. We're going to Antarctica."_

" _Yes, boss."_

" _Are you even listening to me?" The woman asked, and he rose from his chair, running into her._

" _You look beautiful." He said, looking at her up and down quickly._

" _Thanks. Have you heard what I sa...?"_

" _I agree 100%." He interrupted her, having no idea what she said, because he could stop thinking about the Hydra base that he was about to explode. "We talk later, ok? OK." He gave her a peck. "Bye." Then he ran to the door._

 _..._

"How long am I here?"

"A month and two days, with a total of 5 baths taken and the lucky to always have someone to bring your meals, or would have died of hunger." Friday replied while Tony took his soup desperately; making him lose his appetite with her words.

"Call Hill." He ordered and cleaned his mouth, then immediately the woman's face appeared on a monitor.

"You look terrible."

"How is she?"

"Tired. It was a stressful day at Stark."

"I think I should try to apologize."

"You think?"

"Any suggestion?" Tony asked with red lips, thanks to his dinner, and Maria had considered making a joke, but didn't make it.

"Try to do some pleasure; how participate in something that you said you would participate, and now is causing a major headache because we don't know if we can trust that you will do your part." She suggested, taking the opportunity to needling him.

"Okay."

"And I recommend that you take a bath, hide the dark circles, cut your hair and shave it, before anything. People may think that you are a zombie hungry for new victims. It would be a great Halloween costume, but we are in August. You can back being this sloppy in two months." She joked and hung up.

Then a few hours later, Tony came home clean, well dressed and carrying a bouquet of white flowers, one box of truffles and a bag of an famous jewelry.

He found Pepper in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the couch and reading a book, while sipping a glass of wine.

"You don't need to hesitate to come upstairs, there's no monsters here." She said, without interrupting the reading.

"Who said I was hesitating? Alright I was scared to death." Tony confessed. "White flowers for the lady, in an offer of peace...and a jewel for everybody look at, instead of repair that you have gained some weight with the chocolate." He said, handing the gifts.

"You really know how to talk to women…" She said wryly, as she left the book and the glass on the coffee table. Then she accepted the gifts.

She started smelling the flowers with eyes closed, and let a smile get out of her face at the end.

Opening her eyes, she noticed the presence of a card. And Tony said the words written on it while she read them:

"I'm sorry."

Pepper looked sad at the man, knowing that he was really feeling bad for having gone, again, because of work. She hated to see him like that.

Then she looked back to the presents and opened the box from the jewelry, which kept a beautiful pair of diamond earrings:

"Woah…"

"What? Too large?"

"Well, is not a giant bunny…" She joked, remembering an old Christmas present. "I liked. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Tony didn't understand the sad look of the woman, even after all those presents. "What is happening?"

"What is happening…" Pepper left the gifts on the coffee table, before looking at the man in front of her. "Is that we should go to MIT on Monday but we're not ready. We haven't rehearsed the presentation together; you haven't tested the BARF with the decor and…"

"We have two days to Monday, we can solve this. Relax…" He tried to caress the woman's shoulders, but she walked away. "I can't touch you? Ok. I deserve that." He took up his arms, then sighed. "Pepper, I'm sorry, I was…"

"Don't…" She interrupted. "Don't start with the apologies."

"But I am sorry! And I can explain!"

"Please, stop…" She asked, and then took a long breath, before speaking again. "I don't want this anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Tony, I…" She took a deep breath, now trying to hold the crying. "I think we should take a break."


	19. Chapter 19

"What?"  
"I want to take a break. I'm not breaking up with you. I'm just asking for a break." Pepper paused. "Look, I'm not angry that you're working, I'm not angry that you're Iron Man. I support you with all my strength, you know that. But…"  
"So why are you doing this?" It was his turn to interrupt her. His voice was dark, like his face.  
"Because you have a lot of work to do, and this work consumes your time. Then you realize that time has passed, and it let you with a guilty conscience, and then you get back home with jewelry, flowers, chocolate and a lot of apologies...for later…"  
"We make peace.".  
"Until another emergency at work arises…" Pepper completed. "Then you go away and the cycle restarts."

The woman waited for Tony to answer, but he just stared at her, saying nothing. Then she continued:

"Look...we both know that, for you stay with me, you need to leave your work, even for a short time. And we know that you don't wanna stop, cannot stop, and I would never ask you to. But I don't want you to keep feeling guilty for not being with me. This guilty conscience hurts you, and it hurts me to see you like this. So... I'm freeing you of this burden. You can keep doing your job. And when you finish... we talk." Pepper paused. "I really don't want us to end, Tony. I love you too much…" Her voice failed. Then she looked at the view of the sky from the window behind the couch, trying to compose herself. Until Tony finally managed to say something:

"... I spent all these years working nonstop, trying to protect you…"  
"I know…"  
"But I always knew that the best way to do that was pulling away. I just didn't want to admit it." He added. "It may have been selfish of me, but I didn't want to let you go. I still don't want to. But also I don't wanna stop. I can't stop..." He bent his body and started staring his moccasins, exhausted.

"It's okay...everything will be okay..." She tried to convince both of them, caressing his back. A while later, Tony raised his head and looked at the woman with his watery eyes.

"So that's it?" He asked seriously, unable to discuss. Even because he knew she was right.  
"That's it." Pepper wiped a tear in her eye. "I'm gonna start pack…"  
"No. You stay. I'll leave."  
"I won't stay in this house, there are too many memories here. It doesn't do me any good."  
"And where are you going?"  
"Brentwood. I bought a house there."  
"So you've been thinking about it for some time." It wasn't a question.  
"Yes..." The woman confessed in a low voice, almost whispering. "But I couldn't leave without saying goodbye. I needed to have this conversation with you before. And now that we had..." She collected her gifts; then lifted the man's face and caressed it as she looked at his eyes one last time. "It's not your fault, okay?" She said. Then kissed him on the forehead and gave her back, heading to the stairs. Tony stayed paralyzed, trying to process the information and say something. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. Until he could shout three words:  
"I love you!"

Then Pepper smiled weak and disappeared on the floor above.

...

Tony didn't want to go upstairs and get a room because the woman was there and he wasn't prepared to face her. Then he went down to the cellar and looked at the rows and rows of drinks, but didn't get any. He knew that if he caught the first, would soon be taking the second, the third...

So he turned his way back and went up to the workshop. And at the little kitchen, on the top of the counter, there was a bottle of whiskey in a half. Damn it.

Tony leaned against the counter and stared at the drink. He wanted to drink it. He had to drink it. But he shouldn't.

"Friday, is this real? Or Wanda got angry because I didn't praise the Borsch and now decided to take revenge?"

"I'm afraid this is real, boss. But if it was an illusion caused by the powers of Miss. Maximoff, I would probably answer the same."

"You're right." He said, opening the bottle and serving a double dose. "Dum-E?" He called the old robot he built in college, and it was at his side seconds later. "Don't let me drink more than this, okay?" He asked, and it agreed. Then Tony drunk the entire contents in the glass at once and leaned on the counter, his forehead in contact with the cold metal. He closed his eyes tightly and stayed there, until Dum-E nudged him, checking if he was alive.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…" He said exhausted, raising his head. Then he picked up the bottle, and was about to fill the glass again, when the robot pushed the bottle to the floor, making it break and spread whiskey and pieces of glass everywhere.

"LOOK WHAT YOU DID, YOU…" Then he remembered what he had spoken minutes before and smiled weak. "Good boy. Thank you." He caressed the top of what would be it's head. "Now clean it." He ordered, and walked away, so Dum-E could work. And turning around, he saw the pieces of the representation of his parent's living room wrapped in bubble wrap and leaning in a corner.

Tony took off his blazer jacket and tie, and then walked to the objects, pulling the sleeves of his social shirt. Then immediately started unwrapping each piece and set it up in the center of the garage, in their exact positions.

"Perfect." He said when finished, examining his work. "Where are my glasses?" He asked looking around, and U took the object to him. Tony then wear them and watched his changed memory again, but walking through the scene this time.

He stood in front of his parents, sat on the couch where his old self had lain, even fingered the piano keys, but no sound came out, of course. And when he tried to caress the face of his mother, his hand went through her; after all, no matter how realistic it was. It wasn't real.

When he realized, it had already dawned and he hadn't slept. To vary.

"She already left?"

"5 hours ago." Friday said only. Then Tony turned off his glasses and left the workshop, leaving the hologram of his younger version staring at nothing and disappearing gradually.

He drove past Pepper's office and went upstairs. And when he came to the living room, the first thing he smell was the trail of shampoo and fragrance that Pepper left. Then he went to the kitchen to make a sandwich. He was starving.

Once there, on the top of the counter, he saw a made sandwich. And next to it, a note written on a napkin:

 _"Don't forget to eat."_

The refrigerator door was full of shopping and appointments' lists hanging; and Tony readed them while eating. And as he was distracted, he ended up dropping sauce on his shirt.

"Shit..." He said; and tried to clean it with his tongue, not succeeding. And he thought about keeping with dirty clothes, avoiding what he would have to do next:

He got upstairs, still hesitating, and walked through the corridors like if a monster was waiting for him at the end of the line.

Then he stopped in front of the last door he wanted to cross at that time. He prepared for what was coming and slowly opened it, entering in the room where the smell of the woman was stronger. Smell that that immediately penetrated his nostrils and filled his lungs, causing a lot of pain in his chest.

Tony just wanted to get the first shirt he saw and get out of that bedroom as soon as possible; but everywhere he looked, he could only thought about Pepper: at the armchair she used to seat down to put on her shoes; the painting behind the bed that she chose in person; the walls where she pressed him or got pressed by him when they exchanged caresses on nights when they came home desperately excited; the bed where they had sex, love, talked or watched tv; at the closet, where she tried several times to get dressed and he fumbled her, trying to prevent her from going to work; her clothes that were left there; his clothes that she used to wear and make him crazy…

Why was he being so nostalgic? Pepper. She did this to him. He turned into a completely different man, which wasn't bad. But at that moment, being nostalgic wasn't doing him well.

He took a shirt and a blazer jacket that were still with labels, which meant that the woman probably never had worn them, then runned out of the room.

"Friday, prepare the helicopter." He ordered while getting dressed in the elevator, avoiding thinking of the times he and Pepper make out in that cubicle. Then he left from the front door and ran to the helipad. He couldn't handle staying any longer in that place.


	20. Chapter 20

On Monday morning, after that so intense weekend, Pepper came to Stark Industries in a sadness hidden the best on her face. But the staff noticed that something was wrong and soon began to gossip, being careful so someone (Happy) didn't catch them doing that. And it was through them that Hill heard that her boss had not complied the schedule organized for the day, and then immediately began to run.

"Shouldn't you be at the MIT right now?" She asked, receiving her with a coffee cup that she caught on a rush to the cafeteria.

"Change of plans." Pepper said only, accepting the drink and entering her office. "Where is Bambi?"

"With Happy in Massachusetts, since yesterday, getting everything ready for you!" Maria closed the door to say. "You're not gonna miss the premiere of your project just because you broke up with Tony, are you? That would be childish." She scolded.

"I know…" The redhead left her briefcase on the table and watched the view of the company from the window, as she took her coffee. "But I couldn't do it, Maria. Not yet."

"Since it is so, I will cancel your presence. It will be last minute, but better late than never."

"Do it." She asked. Then the agent left, already pulling out her phone.

" _Is she ok?"_ It was the first thing Tony said when answered the call.

"Yes. But she canceled her presence today."

" _It was expected. Don't worry about the MIT, I can handle it on my own." H_ e said and hung up.

…

"She has arrived?" Happy asked when arriving hastily, hours later.

"Yeah, she's inside." Maria said, then the chief of security came in, finding Pepper watching the news:

 _"...Eleven Wakandas were among those killed during the confrontation between the Avengers and a group of mercenaries, in Lagos, Nigeria, last month."_

"They're still talking about it? I thought that, at this time, the media had already forgotten." Happy said.

"They would never forget tragedies involving the Avengers. And it seems that an accord was created, to avoid future ones…" Pepper replied, before taking a sip of her third coffee of the day.

 _"...'Victory at the expense of innocent people is not a victory at all.' Said the king T'Chaka of Wakanda, in an interview during the ONU event this morning for the presentation of Sokovia Treaty. But what is this accord about?"_

 _"...the last four years the Avengers operated with unlimited and unsupervised power, and world governments will no longer tolerate it! I mean, who said a bunch of Americans could enter without permission in a foreign country, leave it on pieces, and return to their huge and luxury tower in Manhattan, that everything would be alright?"_

 _"...and that Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch? She is Russian! Is that woman allowed to live in the United States? Allowed to enter Nigeria and kill dozens of people?"_

 _"...And the solution was the Sokovia Accords, which has been approved by 117 countries, and establishes that the Avengers will no longer be a private organization, and will now operate under the supervision of a ONU commission, and can only act with the permission of this commission, when the same deems necessary. Otherwise... they keep hidden on their burrow, without getting involved."_

 _"...Who got lucky was Tony Stark! Wasn't he who was banking the Avengers?"_

 _"Who got lucky was Tony Stark's girlfriend! She is the one who works while he and his troupe are destroying cities around!" So_ all of the people laughed.

 _"...and in three days there will be a ONU meeting in Vienna, Austria, to ratify the accords."_

 _"And if the Avengers don't sign it?"_

 _"They_ _ **have**_ _to sign it. Or they will be dispensed from their services."_

"Enough." Pepper gave the order; then the TV stopped changing channels and got off immediately. "You don't need to hold it, just ask me what you want." She said calmly, recognizing her friend's expression.

"Do you think he'll sign it?" Happy dropped the question, and she thought for a few seconds.

"No. If he doesn't sign it, he will be dispensed, then he could work on his own. If he signs, there will be a really good reason behind it, because if there's a thing he hates, that's the government. But let the Avengers with their problems and let's take care of ours…" She said; then faced her computer, returning to work.

…

That night, someone knocked on the door of Pepper's new house. She wasn't expecting visitors, but it could only be someone she trust, or the security would never allowed the entry. Then she quietly walked down the hall, wondering that it was Maria or Bambi. And she got surprised when saw who really was waiting outside.

"Tony." She received him, after looking at the mirror window beside the door. The man was very well dressed in a black suit and tie, as if he had just come out from a major event.

"Pepper." He looked at her straight in the eye, avoiding imagine what she wore underneath the gray silk robe. He stepped forward and aimed a kiss on her lips, but the woman turned her face and he hit her cheek. Then he walked away in frustration. "I need to talk to you. But first, can you tell me where the toilet is?"

"Of course…" She pointed her thumb to back. "Walk until the end and turn left. When finished, I'll be in the office. It's right there." She pointed to a closed door in the hallway.

"Cool. I'll be quick."

"Sure…" She thought aloud, knowing that the man would scour the whole house, at least.

…

"Knock, knock." Tony said entering the office, nearly 20 minutes later. "Nice house. I took a tour around before coming here."

"Of course you did." Pepper dropped her pen on the desk, smiling ironically. "I brought tea if you want. I thought about bringing whiskey, but…"

"You were right not bringing. Thank you." He said, and the woman smiled weakly, watching him serving a cup of the hot drink.

"How it was at the MIT?"

"Easy. I presented the BARF. Made a speech. Presented the September Foundation. Everyone applauded. You have a bit of cream here." He tried to clear the corner of the mouth of the woman, who pulled away and cleaned herself. Then he got his arm back to the original position and sat in front of her, silent.

"Tony, let's be direct: what you had to tell me that is so important that you had to come to my house in the middle of the night? Is there anything I can do for you?" Pepper asked, and he sipped his tea before saying:

"You must have heard about the Sokovia Accords."

"Oh, yes. That's the only thing people are talking about today." She drank some tea. "Will you sign it?"

"Yes." He took another sip. "Or rather, I already did."

"Why?" She frowned.

"Because it was the right thing to do!" Tony said like it was obvious, and then read the expression on the woman's face. "You thought I wouldn't sign it. Why?"

"Because you would get rid of the Avengers and could keep working on your own."

"If I didn't sign, it would be a matter of time before I was considered a criminal." He corrected her. "I would have to stop being Iron Man."

"And you don't want that, right?" She smiled; and he looked away, letting out a quick sigh.

"Pep, I'm working for the government, I'm walking in the line, I'm receiving orders from old men in suits! I thought it would make a difference."

"In what? Our relationship?" Pepper asked, then sighed, looking down. "Tony, I don't... Your job is not a problem. Iron Man is not the reason for our separation, I told you. I asked for a time so you can keep working without having to worry about…"

"Don't say "me". You know there's no way I stop worrying about you."

"I know…" She smiled. "I would say that you will no longer need to worry about apologies every time you get much time off, or whenever you need to leave." The woman paused. "Tony, when you get ho...in the mansion...devastated and trying to apologize for having spent a lot of time off, like if you needed to give me some apology for doing your job... It breaks my heart. And I know that this whole situation hurts you too. Because you wanna be with me, you wanna be with Iron Man, but you can't handle both at the same time; and when you focus on one, you feel bad about leaving the other aside. And you can't leave Iron Man aside, there's too many lives at stake. I'm just one."

"But you're the only one that I can't leave without!"

"But you're not without me! I'm with you! Just not in a romantic way at the moment. But I will always be with you, Tony. I'm just...giving you some space, so you can focus on what is most important right now. And when things get better... Well, you know where I live, you know where I work, you know every place that usually go to. You'll find me." She smiled weakly, trying to comfort him. Then they stared at each other in silence for a while.

"OK!" Tony unexpectedly rose, trying to stop showing weakness. "I tried, I failed... and now I'm leaving." He drank the rest of the tea and left the cup where it was caught. "Will you still work in the Avengers press office?"

"Of course, yes."

"So I see you around." He walked toward the door, and the woman began to rise. "Don't waste your time. I know the way out. Good night, Pepper."

"Good night. And Tony?" She called him, and he stopped in the doorway, with his hand on the doorknob. "Keep doing therapy. It's important not to stop the treatment, especially in this difficult time." She asked.

Then he muttered a "Yeah..." and waved once with his head, before passing through the door and close it behind him.


	21. Chapter 21

"I'm sorry…" It was the first thing that Pepper said after getting out of the elevator. "Sorry to cancel at the last minute and leave you alone in Cambridge…"

"It's okay." Bambi smiled, but soon broke it up. "I heard about what happened…" Then she handed her a cup of coffee and the two walked down the hall.

"How did you know?"

"There are many rumors on the Internet. You haven't been seen together lately, and then happened what happened yesterday... The MIT students knew you'd be there, but then you lacked; and everyone noticed that Mr. Stark freezed at some point of the presentation, precisely, when he would call you to the stage. My fault. I couldn't get them to change the teleprompter in time, sorry."

"It's okay, you've helped a lot. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Good morning, boss." Maria received her in her office, while leaving files on the table. "Here are some contracts related to the Stark World Expo, September Foundation, some invitations, Petitions from the Stark Foundation, last week's sales report and some information about the Sokovia Accords, if you're interested."

"Did someone not sign?" Pepper asked, opening the last file.

"Wilson and Rogers. Barton said he retired. Already Romanoff will sign in two days, at the conference in Vienna. And Rhodes and Vision…"

"Are with Tony, of course." She added, reading the papers. "Wanda?"

"Haven't decided yet. Until then, she's under protection, at the compound."

"Under protection, at the compound?" Pepper asked, knowing what that meant.

"You know him…"

"I know…" She sighed, restarting to read the papers. "And what will happen to those who didn't sign the accords?"

"They will be given as dangerous fugitives and hunted by the authorities. A second chance will be given to them to sign the accords. And if they don't cooperate...they will be detained." Maria replied, while Pepper stared at a page with pictures and information about Captain America.

...

2 days later ...

"Good morning, boss. The sky is clear, with no rain forecast. The temperature marks 77°F at this moment, but may reach 95° during the day. The perfect time for some swim, if you didn't have to spend all day locked in an office."

"What a motivating speech…" Pepper commented as getting out of the bed, holding her phone, from where Friday was talking to her.

"Thanks. But if it serves as consolation, you have therapy at 17:00. After the appointment, your schedule will be free."

"It seems that I will have my swim, after all."

"Indeed."

Pepper then left the phone in the bathroom sink and looked in the mirror. "Mr. Hogan asked to warn you that he went on a special mission at the request of Mr. Stark."

"Special Mission? And since when Tony asks Happy to do something besides training boxing or buy ice cream?" The woman got surprised.

"Do you want to see today's headlines?"

"Yes, please." She said while washing her face, and then the phone began to show videos from news channels:

 _"A bomb hidden in a press car exploded in front of the ONU headquarters, in Vienna, where representatives from 117 countries met to ratify the Sokovia Accords. More than 70 people were injured and about a dozen have died, including King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Security camera images reveal a suspect identified as James Barnes, the Winter Soldier, Hydra agent, previously linked to numerous acts of terrorism and political assassinations. The authorities are now looking for lanes about the suspect's whereabouts. If you have any information that can help, call anonymously to…"_

 _"German special forces stormed a building that served as a hideout for James Barnes, the Winter Soldier in Bucharest, Romania. There was an attempt to escape, helped by Steve Rogers, the Captain America, which only ended in an overpass near the local, when Colonel James Rhodes and more soldiers of the German special forces surrounded and arrested them. The two are now being sent to Berlin, accompanied by the new King T'Challa of Wakanda, that wearing a special black costume, prevented the escape of Barnes and Rogers._

 _James Barnes was wanted for the attack on the ONU headquarters in Vienna, this morning, which left nearly ninety people injured and sixteen killed, including the king T'Chaka of Wakanda."_

 _"A blackout covered the entire Berlin in the end of this morning. An electromagnetic pulse bomb was shot in the company that manages the electrical energy of the city, resulting in the blackout that has caused numerous accidents on the streets, with the loss of electronic signage, and the looting of several shops and houses, even in daylight. Images from security cameras reveal a van for a courier company coming to the place and an employee receiving a large box, and when the same is open, it can be seeing the electromagnetic discharge, which reaches all around, before causing the end of the recordings. The employee of the power company is hospitalized in a serious condition and the van and the delivery man are being wanted. Berlin is recovering the energy gradually."_

 _"The main suspected of being involved in the blackout in Berlin is James Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon, and Steve Rogers, the Captain America, who have taken advantage of the lack of energy and escaped from prison"_

"Tony was right, after all." Pepper said as she put a cream on her face, not paying much attention to what she was doing, once her head was filled with the news. "Is he okay?"

"Why do you keep asking me that all the time, if you're on a break?"

"We're taking a break, it doesn't mean I'll stop worrying. Is he okay?"

"Yes, as far as possible. He's hunting Rogers."

"Captain America is being wanted as an outlaw. It's the end of times…"

...

For the rest of the day, Pepper received no further news of the Avengers. At least until she got home, after the appointment with the therapist, and found Maria Hill in the living room, waiting for her with a face not cheerful at all.

"Boss." The agent rose from the couch when saw her going through the door. "We need to talk."

Then the woman took off her sunglasses and sighed, getting prepared for what was about to come.

...

"There was a problem at the compound. Barton went there just now, to kidnap Wanda."

"You know... I never liked when Tony locked me somewhere in the end of the world while he worked as Iron Man... " Pepper said, sitting in an armchair and starting to take off her high heels."I never complained because I understood he was just being worried about my safety. But I didn't like to feel like a bird in a cage, and I think Wanda felt the same way. So...Isn't 'Kidnapping' a too strong word for what probably happened?"

"Well, at first, it was a kidnapping. She didn't wanna go."

"But then..."

"But then Barton persuaded her to run away. Vision tried to stop them and ended up being tortured and buried by her, causing a crater that goes through all floors of the building, and a few more layers underground." Maria spoke all at once; and Pepper was in silence for a few seconds, before saying:

"How is Vision?"

"Shaken up?" Maria surprised, after all, he was a machine. "But he'll be fine."

"Did someone get hurt?"

"No. The building was isolated; only Barton, Vision and Wanda were there."

"Good to know." She paused. "Well, It seems that we're gonna have another reform ahead…"


	22. Chapter 22

_"An airport in Leipzig, Germany, was evacuated so the Avengers could capture the fugitives Steve Rogers, James Barnes and Sam Wilson, who did not surrender and tried to flee. The Avengers tried to prevent the escape and a battle was fought on the local. Airplanes and containers were destroyed and the control tower was demolished. There's no sign of wounded civilians._

 _The Avengers arrested Wilson and his new partners: Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, Scott Lang, the Ant-Man, and Clint Barton, the Hawkeye. Barnes and Rogers escaped."_

 _"And it seems that not only Steve Rogers' gang got a booster! Amateur cameramen revealed that the Avengers got a new member, in addition to King T'Challa of Wakanda. The man in a sticky red costume has the same characteristics as the popularly known as 'Spider-Man', from the videos that have been circulating on the Internet recently, defending the Queens. It seems that someone made friends with the right person and got an improvement to his costume…"_

 _"We just got the news that Colonel James Rhodes was hit during the persecution of James Barnes and his henchmen, and was removed from the Leipzig airport with the help of a stretcher. People near the place were alarmed by a noise and claim to have seen Rhodes being accidentally hit by his teammate Vision and then fall from the sky at high speed:_

' _Stark and that Falconman tried to reach him, but neither of them arrived in time. Then there was a thud and we knew: he had fallen.'_

 _There's no news about Rhodes' health condition."_

"You've been with them, do you know how James is?" Pepper stopped watching the news on the kitchen TV and looked at her phone, which showed Happy's face, live from the jet of Stark Industries.

"I didn't stay there to hear everything, but there was a spinal injury." He said sadly. "They're taking him to the compound."

"Oh my God…" She put her hand in front of her mouth. "Let's visit him; it's good to have friends around at times like this. When are you arriving?"

"In about two hours. But I still have to take the kid home, so meet me at the tower in three hours."

"Ok." Pepper bit a grape, taking some time to eat it, thinking of Rhodes and everything that was happening. Then she remembered someone who was also at the airport in Germany that morning. "So, have you met Mr. Parker?"

"If I met him? I'm his nanny!" Happy complained. "Tony made me accompany him from Queens to Berlin, as he talked endlessly about how much he was excited to work with the Avengers, how everything was amazing, how grateful he was and blah blah blah…" He drank some juice. "After that I had to stay in a hotel room watching him do his homework. Homework! Who takes homework for a trip like that? And Tony totally left me alone in this. All he did was send a case with a new suit for the kid. Thank God, because I saw him with the old suit, and it's pathetic. Tony was smart to send me deliver him the case; he wouldn't have the patience I had with the torrent of thanks for the suit. The boy looked like a kid getting a new toy."

"He **is** a kid." Pepper said, fearing for Peter and his poor aunt, who probably knew nothing.

"And there was also that god damn camera filming everything every time and...what?" He looked beyond the screen. "I'm busy, can't you see?" He complained, then Pepper saw a boy running to get Happy, approaching his face to the camera.

"Is that Mr. Stark?" He asked excited, then changed the posture when realized he was wrong. "Ouch. Sorry."

"It's okay…"

"Get out!" The bodyguard yelled, then the boy ran away.

"Happy, don't be rude." The woman scolded him. "Don't forget he's just a kid."

"It's impossible to forget." He looked at Peter, who had sat in the pilot's seat and was using his phone to film the automatic controls of the ship. "See you in three hours." He said, then ended the call.

"Friday?" Pepper called it, putting the phone to her ear.

"Yes, boss?"

"Cancel all my morning appointments and bring me a helicopter, please." She asked, standing up.

...

About three hours later, she and Happy came to the Avengers compound:

"Is he here?"

"He just left." Friday said to the woman, who was watching the view from above of the place. She felt Happy's worried look at her, but decided not to face him. So the warning asking to put the belts on got kindled, because the helicopter was about to land.

…

"Fractures from L4 to S1. Extreme laceration of the spinal cord. I'll probably get some kind of paralysis. But I'm alive, right? That's all that matters." Rhodes said, while Pepper and Happy watched concerned the results of the MRI.

"But there's still chance. We're gonna get him to Columbia tomorrow. Maybe we get lucky." Hill added.

"And if we don't, Tony said he would build something. Poor fellow, he already carries so much on his back, and I still give this burden to him."

"I'm sure you're not any burden…" Pepper smiled, holding his hand.

"How are you?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm fine. People look at me like I was crazy for leaving home when he most needed me, and this situation is not even more aggravating just because of what is happening with the Sokovia Accords and the Avengers, which are occupying all the headlines. But I'm fine."

"Where are you living? Bel-Air?"

"Brentwood. It's a lovely place. Right, Happy?"

"Yeah. Cozy. Calm. Safe." He said, stopping looking at his friend's chest, as if he could see the column on the other side.

"Small, compared to the Malibu mansion. But, once it's smaller, I don't need to hire too many people to home services. Only the essential; so we don't call media attention and run less risk of someone spread the address out there." Pepper added. "But tell me about you: Are you feeling any pain? Do you need something?"

"I'm not feeling anything, but it's because I'm lying in this bed since yesterday and no one lets me move even a finger. My muscles are asleep." He complained. "I need to leave this room, go outside, get some air."

"You complain too much for a soldier." Hill rebuked him, leaning against a wall.

"I'm sure soon you will can go to the garden. But until that doesn't happen, we can bring it to you." Pepper then looked at Happy, and the man took the card that was in her briefcase.

"How cute... Did you make it, Hap?" Rhodes asked with humor, accepting the present.

"I'd give you a punch if you weren't already broken."

"Right…" He said smiling, while reading the 'Get well soon!' card that Happy bought at the airport. "The doll even has crutches! "He thought it funny, even knowing that that was his likely destination. "And look, I won a flower…" He said, taking it from inside the card.

"They didn't let us in with the whole bouquet, so we hid one." Pepper smiled.

"Call the police, we have two outlaws here!" Rhodes joked and everyone laughed. Then he fitted the flower over his ear and read the card again, feeling much better with the simple gesture of his friends.

…

"Do you think he will walk again?" Pepper asked the doctor who accompanied Rhodes' condition.

"Without the crutches, I doubt it. But I won't confirm anything, We're still gonna take him to Columbia. And if they fail, we will keep trying. There are many doctors with different methods out there, and we still have our team here. We will ensure that the Colonel stay as comfortable as possible, whatever the verdict is. But we're not able to reconstruct the bone structure yet."

"It's a pity that Dr. Cho's equipment only rebuild flesh, isn't it?" Pepper smiled sadly. Then, behind the doctor's back, she noticed someone coming up the hallway. "Excuse me…" She politely said goodbye, then walked over to the man standing in front of James' bedroom window.

"Miss. Potts."

"Vision. I'm sorry for what Wanda did to you."

"I'm sorry for what I did to the Colonel." He looked at her, and the woman asked herself if it was possible to him to feel the sadness he seemed to be feeling, since he was a machine.

"What happened? You never missed a target, I was surprised when I heard about it."

"I got distracted." Then the woman did a look like she wasn't understanding. "Mr. Stark and I also thought it was impossible."

"Nothing is impossible. And to err is human."

"I'm not human."

"Apparently you're more human than it seems. Especially when Wanda is involved." Natasha appeared from nowhere and pushed a starkpad against his chest. Vision then held the tablet and began to read the news that had just come out, and basically proved that Steve was right: The psychiatrist who interviewed Barnes wasn't who they thought. The real one was found dead in a bathtub of a hotel room in Berlin. In the same place it was found a mask of Barnes's face. They were after the wrong man all that time. "How are you, Pepper?"

"Well, as far as possible. And you, Natasha, shouldn't be explaining yourself to Ross and company?"

"There's not much to discuss. I said that I would help to find them, not to capture them. And that's what I did." She explained. "They're not crazy to arrest me. Without Rhodes and with Stark hurted, the group is already too depleted." She noticed that Pepper's security expression failed to hear the name of the ex-boyfriend. "Sorry."

"It's okay. Well, I... I have to go. I'm…"

"Afraid to bump into him here."

"Late. For an important appointment." Pepper corrected, getting the security tone back. "See you later. Good luck to you all." She said goodbye; and went behind Happy, wanting to get out of that place as soon as possible. They were there for already too long.

...

When she entered the helicopter, a shock: An identical vehicle landed on the helipad beside, and only one person could be using it.

Pepper looked from the window, waiting. But no one came out of the other helicopter. It was empty.

Then her vehicle closed the door and started to fly, taking the woman and her worried thoughts back to Los Angeles.


	23. Chapter 23

"Fri...Friday?" Tony called her, extremely weak, as soon as Rogers and Barnes were out of sight. His suit was completely destroyed; he couldn't get in touch with anyone that way. So he used the last of his strength to remove the suit from his wrist, revealing the watch that he didn't take off before leaving the helicopter. "Friday?"

"Yes, boss?"

"Take me out of here."

"Hold on, boss. Help is on the way."

"Zemo…"

"Black Panther captured him."

"Can you put me in-line with him?" He asked, and waited a moment for the answer:

"Mr. Stark."

"Barnes and Rogers escaped, try to catch them."

"I'm already working on it."

"And hold Zemo until the rescue team arrives. Let's take him to Berlin." He gave the order. And when the rescuers took him to the quinjet, he noted that Zemo was left gagged and tied by T'Challa, who had gone as well as the quinjet that Rogers and Barnes stolen at the airport.

…

"Hey... Good morning, sunshine…"

"Pep…"

"Hmm... wrong Redhead. Sorry." Tony woke up completely, when hearing a voice different from the one he would like to hear. So he opened his eyes in shock and saw Natasha Romanoff in front of him. Then looked around and noticed that he was in a room in the medical wing of the Avengers compound. While regained consciousness, the memory of his situation with Pepper returned to his mind like a thud.

"How long have I slept?"

"13 hours."

"Rhodes. I should have taken him to Columbia…" He tried to get up, and Natasha pushed him back.

"He was taken, and got back here a few hours ago."

"So?" Tony waited for the answer, and the woman just shook her head in denial. "He can't just not walk for the rest of his life, I gotta do something…" He tried to get up again.

"You gotta stay in this bed…" She pushed him again. "And if you be a good boy and behave, you might get discharged. Maybe even get a lollipop." She smiled, and he calmed down.

"How is he?"

"Grateful to be alive."

"And Zemo?"

"Is in Berlin. Everett Ross is having fun with him."

So Tony remembered one of the latest events in specific and was possessed by hatred:

"Barnes." He growled.

"The quinjet with which he fled was found in the Pacific Ocean, empty. He and Steve are being wanted, but, so far, there's no sign of them."

"I make a point of find them myself. They can stay with Rogers, but Barnes is mine." He said darkly.

"And what is the reason of that?"

"Did you watch the video?" He asked, and she nodded. "So you know that motherfucker killed my mom. Killed my parents!"

"And revenge won't bring them back, or make you feel better. On the contrary, you would regret." She warned. "Tony, it wasn't Barnes who killed your parents. It was Hydra. They dominated his mind that night, dominated again in Washington, and last week, in Berlin. You were there, you saw that he has completely changed personality when Zemo said those words. So why, instead of getting back at someone who is not guilty of what happened, don't you focus on bringing down the real villain of this story?" The woman suggested. Then she rose from the edge of the bed and walked toward the exit.

…

"She's right." Rhodes said, while watching Tony taking his measurements. "Killing him won't get you anywhere. But ending with those people behind it, that will worth it. Hey, where did you get that lollipop?"

"A nice nurse gave me." Tony took the candy off his mouth to say.

"It matches with your eye." He said, noticing that the lollipop was purple.

"Call Comedy Central, they need people like you."

"Maybe I'll call. To ask for a cameo in your show!" James snapped. "Couldn't you just ask Friday to do this?" He asked, watching his friend measuring his legs carefully.

"They confiscated my watch." Tony said, collecting the tape he borrowed with a nurse. "It must be in my suite, but is on the other side of the compound. You're not worth of all the way there."

"Good to know I'm important to you."

"Hey, you? A little help?" Tony called the nurse responsible for James. "Pelvic region, inner thighs and all the area I don't wanna touch." He guided him; delivering the tape, a pen and a clipboard with notes.

"So, what's the idea?"

"It'll be like a suit, but I'll try to make you not look like a cyborg. The intention is it to be adjustable to the body, so you can keep using it, even if you gain or lose weight. And it will be…"

"In a discreet color." James completed. "No red."

So Tony rolled his eyes, but he would do exactly what his friend had asked.

"And how do you intend to do this with a screwed arm?"

"I'll find a way." He said, wishing he had brought Dum-E and U from Los Angeles.

"You will recover, and then you can go to work. This is not a request, Tony." James ordered. "I'll have to wait a century to get out of this bed, anyway... So use this time to have some rest."

"I don't need that, I'm great."

"Really? When was the last time you looked in a mirror? You look terrible! And not just physically! Tony, in less than a week you went through a separation at home, a separation at work, losses, chaos, and a shocking revelation about your parents. There's no way you're ok, much less great! So take care of yourself. And if I heard that you're not doing it, I'm gonna go even crawling to you lab if necessary. But I'll beat you."

"Got it."

"Great. Come here." He called him with open arms.

"I'm not gonna hug you while you have someone between your legs."

"You're gonna hug me, and will remember not to beat my back." James ordered; and Tony obeyed, surrendered.

"Ready." The nurse handed the clipboard with the notes, the tape and the pen. Then Tony stared at the objects for a second and Rhodes sighed:

"For a moment I forgot you're an idiot…"

"Thank you. I'll take this…" Tony picked up the clipboard, surprising his best friend. "That you didn't touch after touching certain places. You can keep the pen and the tape, or set them on fire, throw them away…"

"Tony…"

"Or return to the the nice nurse, do whatever you want." He looked back at his friend. "My services here ended. But I'll be back."

"I'll be right here." James did what came closer to be the act of shrug. "Be safe, Tony."

"Always." He smiled and walked away.

…

Rhodes was right. Tony was destroyed, exhausted, stressed. He needed to relax, but had no time left to make a trip. He would have to resolve it by himself. Then he thought of a combination that Pepper had taught him: Bath and wine.

And it was in the woman that he thought when he opened the door to his suite and smelled the very familiar perfume.

Enter that place may have been a bad idea. But he was already there, he would not turn around. Then he stepped forward and closed the door.

His wristwatch was on the bed, the screen flashing with the notifications received in the past hours. Tony caught it with his free hand (the other one was holding a glass, and a bottle of wine was seated in the sling that was immobilizing his injured arm) and then went to the bathroom.

He filled the tub.

Powered the whirlpool.

And entered.

The sling on his arm was bothering him.

He didn't think twice and took it off, throwing it away.

He looked at his side, where were the drink and the glass. He thought: "I think I won't need you."

Then he opened the wine and drank straight from the bottle.

He laid his head on the edge of the tub and sighed.

Soon he had drunk half of the bottle content. It wasn't what Pepper taught him, but who cares?

The drink was beginning to take effect. He felt sleepy.

He took a nap.

When he awoke, he was a little wrinkled. He ignored.

His watch beeped: New notification.

Then he began to read them:

There were headlines about the battle at the airport.

About Zemo: the man who faked identity, caused the attack in Vienna and has infiltrated the government building in Germany without anyone suspecting.

About Zemo's arrest.

About the actual cause of death of Howard and Maria Stark (purposely disclosed by the authorities, planning to increase people's hate for Barnes, then facilitating the job search for the same).

About the Spider Boy, thw Human Spider, no one was sure what was the name of the guy who viralizated on the Internet and now, apparently, had joined the Avengers. (Tony remembered that he had to see Peter. There were some repairs in his suit that needed to be done. He would ask him to go to the Tower later. If Rhodes figured it out, he would have to crawl there, as it said. That would give time enough for him to get back to the compound and pretend nothing happened).

A few more articles talking about him.

Some messages and news praising the September Foundation.

And in the end, some condolence messages received after everyone knew what really happened to his parents. Tony walked right past those. He would not waste his time reading every single one, they all said the same thing.

But then he stopped when he starred at one in particular

"Will I wanna hear this?" He asked, staring the notification of Pepper's voice message.

"How would I know?" Friday was rude.

"Checking the audio content?"

"She's not asking to get back, if you're wondering. Now, if you wanna hear it, that's on you. And get out of this bath, before you get wrinkled like an old man." She was firm; and he stood up, pulling a bath towel.

"What are you waiting for?" Tony asked walking to the closet, while holding a towel around his waist with one hand and drying his hair with another, ignoring the pain in his injured arm.

Then the room was filled with Pepper's voice, like if she was there:

 _"You probably won't hear this, but... I'm sorry for your parents. They didn't deserve that, and you didn't deserve to figure it out the way you did. I wanted to be with you now, supporting you. But I know we would end up doing something that we would regret later. In fact, that's why I called. Please don't do anything while you're hothead... I know you're angry, I would be too. But the decisions we make when we are blinded by anger are never the best. So, please, think twice before doing something you might regret in the future. That's it. Be safe. I…" Silence. "Goodbye, Tony."_

She would say "I love you." He knew it.

Then suddenly the room was tight.

Tony put his hand on his chest, feeling short of breath. Pepper's voice filled his head, which seemed to be about to explode. The smell of her perfume, which filled the entire room, burned his lungs. He needed to get out of that place. But also needed to put himself together, or would end up being sent back to the medical ward; and he had to get in touch with Peter Parker, he had to make Rhodes' prosthesis, he had to get back to work as Iron Man, back to his home, his life, Pepper...

His heart seemed to want to cross his chest, his breathing quickened even more; his lungs were burning, begging for some air.

And when he thought he was finally defeated by an anxiety crisis...it ended.

The pain in his chest was slowly lightening as well as his breathing and heartbeat. Gradually, he recovered. And when he could think again, Tony dressed as quickly as he could and left that place, not daring to look back.


	24. Chapter 24

"Stark! Welcome back." Tony was met with a tightening of hands from the Secretary of State when he came to the facilities of the Anti-Terrorism Department in Berlin.

"Thank you, sir. Any news of Barnes and Rogers' whereabouts?"

"I hoped it was you who would brought them."

"I'm doing what I can. Where is Zemo?"

"Downstairs, without leakage chances."

"And T'Challa? He was the last to see them."

"He was interrogated while you were vegetating. Carter!"

"Yes, sir?" Agent 13 stood alongside the men, with impeccable posture.

"Show the interrogations of Zemo and Your Majesty to Stark. And update him with what he lost while he was in the hospital."

"Yes, sir." She nodded, and then the two started walking to the boardroom.

"And Stark!" Ross called him, and he turned his face toward him. "Find them."

Tony then looked forward again and walked on in silence.

...

"Here are the reports." Said the agent, handing the papers as soon as Stark sat in one of boardroom chairs.

"I don't like to be handed things." He warned. Sharon then sighed and put the papers on the table. Then clicked a button in the table controls and the tv began broadcasting the recording of the first interrogation

 _"Can you tell exactly what happened?" Everett Ross asked; and T'Challa answered calmly:_

" _I was holding Mr. Zemo when I saw Mr. Rogers and Mr. Barnes running towards the quinjet. There were no signs of the presence of Mr. Stark. So after ensuring that Mr. Zemo had no chance to escape, I entered my vehicle and follow the quinjet until I lost it, when the same went into Stealth Mode. So I went to Berlin to give this testimony."_

" _Why didn't you attack the quinjet?"_

" _Because it went into stealth Stealth Mode before I had the chance. And I only attack as last option. Violence only begets more violence. And in the end, innocent people end up suffering the consequences."_

" _You wouldn't have said this three days ago."_

" _Three days ago, I was possessed by hatred. Thanks to this, I went to seek revenge on someone innocent, while the real culprit for the death of my father was free."_

" _So there's a chance that you have helped Barnes to escape as an apology?"_

" _Negative."_

"He helped them. Tony had no doubt. He even thought of flying to Wakanda at that second, and make T'Challa to cede the location of Barnes and Steve; but his mind got possessed by the words of Pepper, Rhodes and Natasha, addressed to him, hours ago. They were he left himself be guided by hatred and did what he thought about making seconds ago, he would have regret in the future, as T'Challa did.

If the Black Panther helped Barnes and Steve, it was because he knew something that Tony, until then, refused to accept: Barnes didn't kill his parents, politicians, and all those people in numerous terrorist attacks over the years. Zemo was the guilty of the attack in Vienna a few days ago, but in each case involving Wintry Soldier, Hydra was behind it, dominating Barnes' mind and making him do everything.

James Barnes was innocent, Tony had to admit. And he even felt lighter for a moment, until he transferred all the hatred to Hydra. Then he promised himself he would not rest until he finished with it.

"...the storage. "

"Sorry, what?" He asked, coming out of his reveries.

"Barnes' mechanical arm and Cap's shield were cataloged and sent to storage. The suits of Wilson and the other prisoners will follow the same way."

"Have they found out who stole the Wilson and Rogers' suits last time?"

"We have concluded that it was them, until proven otherwise." She replied, still not revealing that she was the guilty.

"Okay, hum…" Tony snapped his fingers, trying to remember the agent's name.

"Carter, sir."

"Carter." He pointed at the woman as he remembered, and she withdrew when an agent called her on the outside of the room. "Carter." He repeated, recognizing the name from somewhere. Then quickly flipped through the reports, until he heard a familiar voice:

"Doing Spider-Boy's homework?"

"No." Tony threw the reports on the table, as he looked quickly to the Black Widow. "And it's Spider-Man."

"Oh, sure, he is already a little man…" She sat at the table and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Always." He replied automatically.

"Did Ross ask you to keep searching for Steve and Bucky?"

"Didn't he ask you?"

"Not yet. But I've been gently ordered to be here …" Tony hissed at her irony. "Then I must be convened. I'm just waiting for him to finish talking with Ross…"

"They really have no parentage?" He asked, and she denied.

"Not close enough to be significant."

"Agent Romanoff, Ross is calling you." Agent 13 informed, when returned to the room.

"The one with the white or whiter hair?" Tony joked and Natasha held laughter. "Well, I gotta go. I have a hunt ahead." He said getting up, then Romanoff held in his hand.

"Don't do anything you'll regret."

They looked at each other for 2 seconds.

"Good evening madams". He set his hand free and grabbed the jacket hanging on the chair. Then he stopped at the door and winked at Romanoff, without Carter knew it, before leaving the room.

...

Tony sent messages to Peter Parker and Happy, making requests and convocations. Then made a brief stop, before heading to the Tower of the Avengers, where the two already were waiting.

They were in the living room. Peter played chess against Happy, and Vision (which was there for some unknown reason to Tony) watched them.

"Hello people. Vision." He greeted them while entering the room, after leaving the helicopter on the helipad.

"Boss."

"What's up?"

"Mr. Stark, how are you feeling?" Vision looked at him, worried.

"Great as always, son. Hap, did you bring what I asked?"

"Yup. They're in the lab."

"Great. I brought a gift!" Then threw a paper bag in the direction of the board, but Peter caught it before it messed with the entire game. "Good catch, kid."

"Shawarma!" Happy perked up, taking the bag for himself.

"Mr. Stark!" Peter arose immediately. I brought the suit, as you asked! It is pretty clean and in one piece, in the exactly way you gave to…"

"Kid, relax. Take a Shawarma and meet me upstairs, okay?" Then he turned his back and walked toward the stairs to the lab.

"Tony!" Happy called and ran to him. "Can I have a word with you?"

"What do you want?"

"You know... I'm enjoying this thing of take and bring things for you. I mean, the kid? It was stressful. But not as much as my current job is. Seriously, you have seen my EKG. That wasn't only eating chicken fingers.

"Get to the point, Hap. I don't have the entire day."

"Okay, sorry. I just wanted you... to try to convince Pepper to promote me to...I don't know... asset manager?"

"What?"

"It's just a suggestion. Come on, you saw my work, I'm doing it great…"

"Let me get this straight." Tony put his hand on Happy's shoulder. "You want **me** to convince **Pepper** to promote **you**?"

"Or you promote me; it can be that too."

"I can't do this. I'm not your boss, remember? Of course you do, until recently you made sure to throw it in my face!"

"My bad."

"And why don't you ask yourself this to your boss? Are you afraid?"

"Terrified." He admitted, and Tony laughed "Come on, man... You must have some trick to soften her or something…"

"Ok…" Tony gave in, still looking amused. But deep inside he suffered, thinking of the woman. "I face the beast, you coward."

"Hey!"

"But what will you do with her?"

"With Pepper? Trustworthy people will take care of her. People that are doing this right now, while I'm here with you. She'll be fine."

"Okay. I'll see what I can do for you."

"Thanks."

"But don't think it will come out for free." He completed, and Happy sighed.

"What do you want?"

"I heard you were cheering for Rogers to get along, instead of cheering for your best friend…"

"Who told you: Friday or Pepper?"

"Rhodey." Tony replied seriously. "So, because you were against your friend, I'm penalizing you to let grow a goatee like mine."

"Tony…"

"Nah! I don't want words, I want a goatee in your face!" He interrupted him. So Happy was forced to surrender:

"Alright...deal."

"Great. And remember that, the next time you think about betraying your friends. Captain America won't give you a promotion. Kid!" Tony settled the conversation and called Peter, as he get away from his friend. So the kid took a shawarma and his suitcase, before running after him.

"So that's it? I won by W.O?" Happy was glad when came back to sit in front of the chessboard, but got worried when looked at Vision. "You won't play in his place, will you?" Then only received a nodding in response. "So I won." He repeated smiling, then bit his Shawarma.

...

"Mr. Stark, I wanted to thank you again for everything, I mean, this suit is amazing and…"

"Jeez, you talk too much... Sometimes is good; talking non stop has saved my neck several times. But I have no patience for those who talk too much, so if possible, shut this mouth a little bit, okay?"

"Yes sir."

"You may have heard of my kids."

"Wait, do you have kids?" So Tony stopped at the lab door and spun around to face him.

"Not in the sense you are thinking. That I know." He said and entered the room. "There you are!" He smiled, lifting a arm. "Kid, these are U and…"

"Dum-E!" Peter got excited and got closer, so he could examine them. One at a time, they held the hand the boy's hand with their claws and waved, in greeting gesture. "You created them in college, when you were my age!"

"Someone've been doing his homework."

"So he got a brother? Awesome!"

"Of course. I have others of them, spread all over the world. These came from Los Angeles, to give me a hand." Tony explained while typing on a screen, starting to work. "Okay, Butterfingers! I want you to help others with the physical repairs of Mr. Parker's suit. Dumb, you will help me with Rhodey's prosthesis. Everyone working, vacations are over!" He snapped his fingers, and then all the lab machines lit up, starting to operate. U opened and closed the claws before turning back, and Dum-E followed his creator.

"Wait!" Peter exclaimed, as he ran behind Tony. "You know, Mr. Stark...today on the plane I heard Happy talking to someone and I thought it was with you...so I went there to thank for the suit, the trip, for the opportunity and everything... but when I looked at the starkpad, it wasn't you, but a red-haired girl. That was Pepper Potts, right?" He asked excitedly.

"Probably." He said, opening the suitcase and taking the costume.

"She's your girlfriend, right?"

"Yep."

"So why are you flirting my aunt?"

"We're taking a break." Tony explained, surprising the boy. "So you know her?"

"Of course I know her! There are some guys who sit behind me in history class who are always flipping through some new magazine and saying that she's very hot."

"What did you say?" Tony stared at him angrily.

"Nothing! I mean, she's a great businesswoman. Stark Industries gave a amazing positive jump since her joining as CEO. And the Stark Foundation? The September Foundation? Just Brilliant! She is a great...philanthropist... too…" Peter quickly changed the subject, nervous.

"Good." Tony said, and left the suit on the computed table where U and its partners waited to work.

"So you're taking a break? That sucks…"

"Indeed."

"So that's why…" Tony realized that Peter wouldn't end that subject so early, so went straight:

"Alright, enough! That's none of your business, okay?" He said firm, scaring the boy a little. Then he smiled and his tone became more friendly. "Eat your Shawarma!"

...

"Your lab is amazing! This entire tower is amazing!"

"Yeah, you've said it. 100 times." Tony said, already out of patience, while picking up two cups with his special green juice freshly prepared.

"Are the other Avengers here?"

"No. They don't come here since the opening of the compound upstate. Little secret, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well. Here." He approached and handed him a plastic cup, with a colorful and twisted straw.

"What is it?"

"Chlorophyll. I basically survived the basis of this when the Arc Reactor Palladium was killing me."

"You probably peed green at that time..."

"The upgrade of Mr. Parker's suit is complete." Friday informed, preventing Tony's answer.

"Alright, ask Happy to prepare the car. Let's go kid. I'll take you home."


	25. Chapter 25

"...So I ask you to remember the case involving Roxxon Norco. My assistant will be waiting for your reply. Have a nice day." Pepper hung up the phone, then heard the knock on the door:

"I'm going to DC, do you want something from there?"

"Honest politicians." She said, and Maria laughed. "What are you gonna do in DC?"

"Get some permissions for the Stark World Expo. On the way I will stop in a notary's office and deliver this…" She gave a document to her boss. "It came just now, from New York."

"Patent registration request…" Pepper read the paper, discovering what it was. "So Tony found a way to James to walk again…" A smile filled her face, and she gave the document back to Maria. "Give priority to this request."

"Got it. And...uh...boss?"

"Yes?" She stopped taking notes and looked up.

"Mr. Stark is here. Shall I authorize him to enter?"

"Oh… Yeah, let him in." The redhead straightened in her chair and waited. Then Maria opened the door and held it, so Tony and Happy could enter.

"Since when you wait to receive permission before enter my office, or anywhere else?" Pepper said surprised, arguing mentally if she should get up and hug the man or not. Eventually she decided not to do so. "Are you ok?"

"Always." He sat in the chair in front of the table. "And you?"

"I'm fine. And swamped. You and the Avengers have given me a lot of work…" She looked at the phone. "Just now, I was talking to the president. He, like everyone, requires explanations about the latest events. Once the government no longer be able to hold the news about the prison break, I'm gonna make an appointment for a press conference; so the Avengers can make an official statement."

"Good idea. Do it. In the compound. No one uses the tower anymore. By the way, once we're on this subject: I'm gonna sell it."

"The Avengers Tower?

"Yep."

"My baby?"

"Well…"

"Oh. Right. I almost forgot. Is not my baby; since I have only 12% of the credit and my name is not on the deed, isn't it?" She teased him.

"Uh...Uh…" Tony stammered.

"I'll call the imobiliary agency." Pepper was about to pick up the phone, when noticed the presence of the second man. "Are you still here?"

"Uh...uh…" It was Happy's turn to stutter.

"What's wrong with you guys today?" She looked at them with a frown.

"He wants a promotion!" Tony pointed to his friend, snitching on him. "He wants a promotion...but is too afraid to ask." Then he looked at his side, finding a sideboard with several drink options available. Pepper looked at Happy amazed and the head of security stuttered again.

"Promotion?"

"Yeah, he wants to de-stress a little." Tony prepared two glasses of whiskey as said.

"I think Happy can speak for himself…" The woman rested her chin on her fist, facing the head of security.

"Here." Tony handed a glass. "This will help."

"I can't drink at work!"

"Soon you will no longer have a job, if you don't start talking…" Pepper had to threaten him. Then the man filled his chest and said:

"I wanted to be transferred to asset management."

"Asset Management?"

"It's less stressful than be head of security!"

"Tony." Pepper made him shut up, then faced Happy again. "Go on."

"I... have explored this branch a little, and I have being doing really well! Tony is witness, I'm doing a good job!"

"That's true." Stark took a sip of his drink, now double, since Happy refused his. "He took care of the kid until he returned to Queens, then took care of the transport of Dum-E and U to the tower…"

"All they arrived on time and with no damages!" Happy immediately added.

"Once we're on this subject...I was wondering...what were in your mind when you decided to take a **kid** to war!? Are you crazy!?" Pepper exploded.

"We needed help!"

"He's only 15!"

"He was fine! I Didn't let him do anything too dangerous!" Tony defended himself, and the woman sighed, trying to calm down.

"His aunt...she knows that?"

"No."

"Of course not; or she would never allow that to happen, right?" The woman smiled ironically. "What did you tell her?"

"That the kid is doing an internship with us, and from time to time, he will need to make a few trips."

"Great, you're including me in that too!" Pepper kept the irony. "And when she connect the dots?"

"She won't. Even because I'm not calling him again so soon. I just called him before because it was an emergency. But now, no big stuff. I have made it clear that it is for him to stay in his, being the friendly neighborhood; solving little things and letting the big ones to professionals. He'll be fine. Happy is already taking care of him."

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, it will be less stressful than work with all those employees who insist on not using the damn badge…"

"By the way, where's yours?" Happy inspected his friend with his eyes, looking for the object.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you here! Can you help me to help you?"

"If you've hired him already, so why did you cross the country, just to tell me that?" Pepper interrupted the discussion of the men.

"You're the boss. The official thing is up to you." He replied with a smile impossible to resist. Then the woman sighed and men celebrated with a hi-five, knowing what was coming:

"Alright...I'll arrange the paperwork. Welcome to asset management, Hap."

"Thank you boss."

"And please, consult a nutritionist. I saw your electrocardiogram, and you really should slow down with chicken buckets…"

...

"So he will stay with you or with him?"

"Speaking that way, it seems that Tony and I are divorcing and Happy is our son…" Pepper said while stretching out on the sofa, in one of the living rooms of her home. "He stays with me. But when the kid or Tony need, he will go there."

"Do you think that will work?"

"Hope so. He really needs to de-stress."

"And nothing better to de-stress than taking care of a teenager…" Maria offered a Martini and Pepper accepted. "Changing the subject!" She sat on the coffee table. "Let's talk about your break-up."

"We didn't break-up, we're just taking a break." The woman corrected her, before giving an sipped on her drink.

"It's not what people think." Maria delivered a starkpad to her boss. "That will go out tomorrow."

"Oh my God…" It was all that Potts were managed to say, reading the cover of a famous magazine:

' _IT'S OVER! Iron Couple rusts and Tony Stark and Pepper Potts' relationship comes to an end! Stark makes clear that Iron Man is priority and let Stark Industries' CEO with heartbroken!'_

Then she slided to the next page, which was the full news:

' _It lasted beyond the expected, but one more of Tony Stark's relationship - the most durable so far - came to an end._

 _Stark has a long historic of women he has been involved with - always for one night only -. So it was shocking when he revealed in a press conference, seven years ago, that he was in a serious relationship with his former assistant._

 _Once it was completely unexpected, and knowing Stark's past, just a few of people believed that their relationship would last. - let alone the seven years that it lasted. But indeed that Tony Stark post-Afghanistan - where he suffered an accident that resulted in the need to use his famous Arc Reactor on his chest (the same was removed years later) and was held captive for three months, until he created the first Iron Man suit and managed to escape. - is not the same as before._

 _Since he assumed that he is Iron Man, the amount of polemics involving Stark and parties, drinks and women has been reduced to almost zero. The last case was at a birthday party, (would it be a midlife crisis?) When, under influence of alcohol, he startled the guests and destroyed his Malibu mansion with one of his suits._

 _On the other hand, there has been more and more polemics involving Stark and disasters - some of them caused by himself - as when, on national television, he threatened a terrorist and revealed the address of his residence; for a few hours later, the same get attacked and destroyed completely (Stark was even given as dead at that time)._

 _The most recent incident was the creation of Ultron, and as result, Sokovia falling from the sky, coming close to causing the complete extinction of life on our planet. Stark took full responsibility from the events; and residents and tourists who were in the city that tragic day are still trying to recover from the disaster two years ago._

 _The reason for the couple's separation would be not only the fact that Tony was causing problems and more problems, but the fact that with more and more problems, the Avenger spent more time with his special suit and less with Potts, who, tired of being left hand, forced him to choose between her and Iron Man. And Stark made his decision._

 _Suspicions that the Iron Couple was rusting arose when Pepper started to be seen always alone, even at events of charity or of the couple's company - Stark Industries._

 _Meanwhile, Tony was less and less seen in his social life, and increasingly fighting crime. The last time he was seen without the Iron Man suit was about a month ago, at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he gave a speech and presented the September Foundation - a private organization that provides scholarships and financing projects for students of science and engineering - financed by Stark Industries and created by Potts, who did not attend the event._

 _Sources reveal that the presence of Pepper was scheduled - and was then canceled,_

' _Stark made his presentation with ease, until there was a time when he looked at the teleprompter and his face became darkened, sad. Then he said goodbye and left the stage with some urgency. The teleprompter said he should call Pepper Potts, but she wasn't present.'_

 _The last time the couple was seen together was last year, in an annual outreach event of Stark Industries, where they even announced the Stark World Expo - which as the name reveals, will travel around the world; starting in 2018._

 _That brings the question: who will get the Stark Industries?_

 _The company was founded by Howard Stark - Tony's father - and after his death, was inherited by his son._

 _Recently we discovered that Howard did not die in a car accident, but by the hands of James Barnes - The Winter Soldier - who murdered him and his wife, Maria Stark, in December 1991._

 _When the tragedy happened in the family, Tony was still too young to run the company. So until he came of age, the Stark Industries were led by Obadiah Stane - which until then was a friend of the Starks._

 _When reached adulthood, Tony finally took over the company. But years later he became Iron Man and gave the post to Potts - which at that time was still his assistant only._

 _Shortly after, the couple revealed that their relationship wasn't just as boss-employee, but that they were in a loving relationship. Potts continued ahead of Stark Industries, who were living - and still live - its glory days._

 _So, with the separation, who gets the empire? The heir? The savior? Or there will be a joint custody?_

 _Stark and Potts had a 7 year relationship, and together amassed a fortune of about $15 billion. The former couple has no children.'_

Pepper let a long sigh get out. Then closed her eyes and ran her free hand on her head. She thought with herself.

"I need you to convene a press conference."

"Are you gonna talk about your private life?" Hill surprised.

"Of course not. The Avengers will make statements about the accords and the latest events. Who cares about a ridiculous gossip magazine?" Pepper drink the rest of her Martini and stood up, going to prepare another one.

…

"So now you'll have to take care of a child? Rhodes asked, while walking slowly on a treadmill.

"It's being calm, so far. The worst part is that he sends me messages all the time. It's annoying." Happy complained.

"Just watch his moves, and everything will be ok…" Tony said, watching the operation of the equipment in Rhodes' legs.

"How long will you have to do that?" James drank some water.

"Until he's ready."

"That will take some time! He's a completely clumsy child! Said Rhodes, increasing the speed of the treadmill. Then he looked at Happy, who seemed uncomfortable with something. "How is this project of goatee going?"

"Scratching!" He complained, scratching his chin. Then he searched in his pockets for something to eat, until he found a small bar of chocolate with caramel.

"It is good. Now you learn to be loyal to your friends! You weren't cheering for my team, so now you'll have to be like me." Tony then stared at the small bar that Hap was about to bite; until he gave it to him, complaining silently. "Thank you, traitor!" He bit the small bar, and Hap rolled his eyes. Until his attention was diverted to James, who didn't support the speed of the treadmill and fell on the floor.

"Damn, Rhodes! Do you wanna break the column even more?" Happy screamed and, along with Tony, helped his friend to get on his feet.

"Who is the clumsy child now?" Stark joked.

"Shut up…" He groaned.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm great. Just need to go to the bathroom. Tony Stank here may want to follow me, as he's familiar with the situation…" James joked with his friend's face, and Tony watched them laugh; until they noticed a head popping up on the floor:

"Could someone explain me this story of Tony Stan…"

"Vision!" They shouted at the same time.

"My apologies..." He came back from where he had come, so he could access the stairs and enter from the door.


	26. Chapter 26

Time passed, and soon came to the people the information about the prison break where the former Avengers were. Each of them was now considered an extremely dangerous fugitive, and the searches for them were vigorous.

Tony represented what was left of the Avengers in the first press conference held in the compound and explained the situation, ending the event with the shocking revelation that he would sell the tower in Manhattan.

Pepper hired trusted professionals to take pictures of the property for the catalog, revealing how everything was warm and cozy, but not overexposing the privacy of the former residents, who still had belongings there.

But of course none of that would be necessary. Dozens of rich people have shown interest in the tower from the second that Stark announced the sale. Who wouldn't want to own the building where the Avengers lived for years? Who wouldn't want to sleep in Thor's bedroom? Work out where Captain America used to work out? Work in the lab where Bruce Banner worked? Have parties in the huge party room where Tony Stark celebrated battle wins, championship finals and birthdays?

There was a huge demand, and each of the candidates was very careful rated. As result, two months had passed before they found the newest owner.

Then came the next phase: empty the place.

...

Tony entered his suite and found some suitcases on the bed. By far, he realized that the clothes weren't his; so he went to the closet, where he found Pepper, emptying her part of the place.

"Hey."

"Jesus, Tony!" She was frightened.

"Sorry! Friday no longer have access here, he couldn't announce my arrival."

"It's okay... I was also distracted." She replied calmer.

"Why are you here? We hired people to do that." He pointed to the pile of folded shirts that was in her hands.

"I know…" She walked right past him and put her clothes in a suitcase. "But I don't like the idea of having sweaty men holding my underwear."

"You came to say goodbye."

"I came to say goodbye…" Pepper confessed, tilting the body toward the suitcase. Her hair capped her face, preventing Tony to saw it.

"Why? There's still several towers around."

"This is the one that started it all…" The woman got up and went back to the closet. "I just wanted to take one last look!" She felt that Tony had followed her and was staring at her back, so she turned her body to face him. "How about you? Why are you here? Certainly not to have a nostalgic moment…"

"Definitely not." He agreed; then he pointed to a spot on his shirt. "Accident with guacamole."

"Next time, you should wear a bib..."

"I'll try to remember that." He said, watching her searching for something to go with his blue pants and orange shoes.

"Take this off." She asked, with the selected shirt in hand. So Tony freezed. "What?"

"Should I turn around? Or ask you to turn around? Or should I go to the bathroom?"

"You can change in front of me. Don't worry, I won't jump on you." She smiled weak.

"Are you kidding? I would love it if you did that!" He said and took off the shirt, not seeing the woman rolling her eyes. Then he handed the dirty one and got the clean one, wearing it immediately. When he finished, Pepper was already giving him a blazer.

"I don't …"

"We're in October, it's cold outside. Dress it."

"Yes, ma'am." He obeyed immediately, just realizing that the label was still on it when it was too late:

"The damn label got stuck at my necklace. Help me here?" He asked; then the woman immediately went behind him and ripped the label carefully.

"Ready." She warned. Then the man turned his body, turning his face towards her. "It was too overpriced for this type of blazer." She handed the label.

"You know I don't look those things…" Tony also held the piece of paper. "Thank you…"

"You're welcome..."

They glanced each other, having a deeper contact than the touch of their fingers, still holding that piece of paper. Looking at each other's eyes, it was possible to read all their thoughts, which of course, were saying the same thing than the ones of the person who was reading them:

They missed each other. No longer could stand this break they were taking. And above all, they desperately wanted to kiss the person who was in front of them.

Their faces approached slowly. Part of their consciousness said it wasn't yet the right time to do that, after all, they were taking a break for a good reason. And that reason hadn't been resolved yet.

But the desire and the longing spoke louder. So the couple approached more and more, until it was possible to feel their breath...

"Boss, the workers have arri... What the fuck are you doing?" Happy asked, after entering the closet and facing the scene.

"Nothing!" Both answered at the same time, moving away from the other. Tony smiled frustrated and looked at the woman, who pulled the air, starting to face the employee.

"Happy… I'm glad you're here; I wanted to give you some instructions..." She walked out of the closet, followed by her newest asset manager. "The clothes in those boxes I left near the door are for donation. And these suitcases here are mine, and I want you to send them to my house."

"Brentwood?"

"Yes, please. But send them only when you be sure that nothing mine has left around. I think I caught everything, but we never know…" The woman pushed the lid of the large metal suitcase with shelves full of shoes, and the same locked automatically. "I won't be home for the next four weeks, so ask the guards to leave everything in the hall, and I'll resolve it when I return."

"Where are you going?" Tony was interested.

"Take a vacation." She answered, before facing Happy again. "Dum-E and U are here, they can help with the packing. But keep an eye on them all the time. You know how clumsy they are…"

"Right."

"Don't forget the Veronica debris downstairs. And please, ask the workers to be really careful with Thor's belongings. We don't know what half of those things do."

"Right."

"Have you already scheduled the flight?"

"Pepper. Everything is alright." Happy guaranteed her. "Trust me."

"I do. But we're talking of the Avengers' belongings, including weapons. Nothing can go wrong."

"And what could go wrong?" Tony asked, putting a hand on Pepper's shoulder, who automatically put a hand over his, but soon took it off. "Enjoy your vacation. It was about time to you to get some rest."

"Thank you..." She said smiling. Then they kissed each other on the cheek and Tony patted Happy's shoulder, before leaving.


	27. Chapter 27

Pepper chose Uruguay to take her vacations. It was almost half of October, early spring in the southern hemisphere. The weather was already fairly warm in the country, and there were only few tourists in the places where she went, since the vacation season was over. So she could go to the beach, biking, boating, doing forest trail, shopping, and meet the local cooking and culture quietly.

Or would, if she didn't think of Tony all the time.

The woman tried to hide, but she was missing him terribly. She missed being with him without being professionally. They had a quick moment at the tower a few days ago; but nothing compared to what they used to have. She missed his touch, the way he used to look at her, the way he used to call her affectionately, his jokes, his smile, his hugs, his kisses...everything.

There wasn't a single moment on that trip, or since they took a break, when Pepper stopped thinking of Tony. She was always wondering if he was okay, if he was safe, eating, going to the therapist, taking his medicines...

But she never made contact. After all, they were on a break.

Until, in a late afternoon, while walking along the boardwalk that was the point of gastronomy of the village where she was staying, she passed in front of a bar and saw a bunch of people gathered around televisions. Everyone was talking at the same time, but the words "El Hombre de Hierro" came very clear to her ears. Then she put herself among the people, to know what happened.

The journalist spoke in Spanish about an incident that happened earlier in a ferry that ran from Staten Island to Manhattan:

Witnesses reported having seen a guy in a armour that resembled a vulture shooting the "Spider-Man, from YouTube." FBI agents (who were on the ferry, following a delation that there would be a smuggling operation of weapons made of exotic material on board) confirmed the story and added that the "hero" got to took Vulture's weapon, but didn't know how to contain it, consequently causing the disaster.

Videos from the ferry's security cameras confirmed the stories, and the press had access to the part of the video in which Spider-Man pulls the weapon made of exotic material from the hands of the smugglers and it starts shooting

wildly in all directions. The hero tries to contain it, wrapping it with a lot of web that left his wrists; then the Vulture flyes on a rush, and seconds later, the weapon suffers an overload and shoot even more powerful lasers, passing thru the web layers that were involving it and hitting the ferry, cutting the vehicle in half.

Amateur videographers revealed that the newest Hero tried to contain the situation, using his webs to keep the ferry up. But it didn't work for too long and the vehicle restarted to slowly falling apart. Until there was a moment when the halves began to be reerected, approaching the other slowly. Then the civilians understood that that was happening because of Iron Man, who connected the halves of the ferry and welded them, solving the problem in matter of seconds.

"Friday, I need you to call Tony." Pepper said, still staring at the tv; and people close to her looked at her cross-eyed, thinking she was talking to herself. Then her bodyguards opened the way and guided her out of the bar, back to the boardwalk.

 _"Alright, you can yell at me. I deserve it."_ He said, answering the phone.

"What was that!?" She tried to control herself, once she was in the middle of the street.

 _"A mess, I know."_

"How are the civilians?"

 _"Scared. Some slightly hurted. But no one died."_

"And the kid?"

 _"Devastated."_

"Tony, that man of the flying suit is very dangerous..." She said, and then smiled at a man who was walking through the street, handing red roses to all women.

 _"Yeah. The FBI was already looking for him, but I think I will have to intervene. And as for the boy, don't worry. I took the suit back."_

"What?" Pepper stopped walking and put the indicator at the electronic point in her ear, not believing what she had just heard.

 _"You were right. Everybody was. He's just a kid, he's not ready yet."_ Tony admitted. And it wasn't necessary to be in front of him to know he was devastated.

"I'm sorry."

"It was the right thing to do. It's like in baseball: three strikes and you're out. I asked him to stay out of trouble, but he's so...stubborn!" Tony complained angrily, knowing he was acting as his father again. "So I took the suit back, before something worse happened."

"3 strikes?" Pepper was surprised, and one of her bodyguards stimulated her to walk again, directing her to a free table outside a restaurant close to them.

"Yeah. The first was when he tried to prevent a bank robbery and destroyed even the grocery store across the street. Then he decided to go after the smugglers and I had to get him out of a lake. Lucky for him that had Wi-Fi where I was... Or lucky for me, since I'ld take the guilt if he died." Pepper sat and started to use her phone to search the cases while Tony spoke.

"Where's Happy? Shouldn't he be looking after the kid?" She asked, reading secret and not secret information about the latest incidents. Then a waitress came up with the menu and she thanked her in Spanish.

"And he is."

"It's not what it looks like. I'm gonna call him."

"He is! He's just overwhelm with the moving!" Tony defended his friend. "The kid'll be fine. He won't face Birdman with that crap costume made at home he has. Happy'll keep him on track."

"Okay..." She gave up, reading the menu.

"Forget this, enjoy your vacation."He said. Then the two got quiet; wishing they were together, and knowing that the other wished the same. Then Tony hung up.

Pepper kept searching for the Spider-Man; finding not only the cases mentioned by Tony, but also one that happened in Washington DC, on the weekend. She watched the videos from the capital, surprise. The kid had done a great job that day.

Then she remembered the request that Tony had just made to her: to forget that and enjoy her vacation.

There were people to solve that entire situation, and Happy was the one in charge to take care of the kid. She should let them do their job and relax; after all, that's why she had taken vacation.

Thinking of that, she closed the search tabs and called the waitress, planning a evening full of fun, alcohol and good food.

And all went very well...

Until the moving day.

 **...**

A few minutes before the load plane leave the Avengers Tower, Pepper called Happy, who ensured her that everything was under control and that all that remained was boarding the Hulkbuster, the prototype of Captain America's new shield and Thor's "magic belt". Then she hung up, promising to call again in the expected time of the arrival of the load at the compound.

The woman couldn't be more calm about the moving. She trusted Happy's work, and knew that the moving would be taken on a airplane of the most high Stark tech, with retro reflective panels, camouflaged cameras in blind spots, trackers, locks and autopilot impossible to hack, and almost silent turbines, which would make the people on ground never even distrust that, above them, a huge plane with the Avengers' 'toys' was flying.

On the flight schedule, Pepper was at the beach of Pocitos, in Montevideo, using her phone to film a quartet playing local music on the edge of the beach. People sang along and danced excitedly, the woman loved being with that warm people. But the fun was over for her, in the second that the camera closed and the photo of Maria Hill appeared on the screen of the mobile, which started to vibrate in her hand.

"Maria."

 _"We have a situation here."_


	28. Chapter 28

"You said you were watching the kid!"

"I was! But how would I know that yesterday of all days, it wouldn't be one more useless thing?"

"You were supposed to know everything of the kid's life; nothing is useless!" Tony snapped. Then he heard Friday's message in his ear and sighed.

"What now?"

"I tried to keep her away; but you really screwed up this time, man…"

"What do you mean?" Happy cared. So Tony looked back, a second before Pepper throw open the door and enter the room in anger.

"Oh... shit."

"Yeah. Consider yourself a dead man." Stark patted his friend's shoulder and walked away.

"I leave for two weeks and **that** happens!?" The woman exploded, before even get close to them. "What the hell, Happy!?"

"Language." Tony scolded her, and received a threatening look in return.

"Can you tell me what the hell happened?" She looked at the nervous man in front of her.

"Toomes hijacked the plane and…"

"And would have stolen everything if the kid hadn't stopped him." Tony added.

"How he managed to break into the system and hijack the plane without anyone noticing?"

"They found this…" Happy gave her a starkpad, showing a picture of small purple cubes. "In the wreckage. Alien tech. Some kind of matter phase shifter." He advanced the screen, and a video from an interior security camera of the airplane showed the exact moment that the Vulture invaded the ship. "The alarm takes 30 seconds to sound...by the way, you should fix that." He looked at Tony, who immediately hit back:

"Hey! Don't try to pass the blame to me!"

"...and 30 seconds was what he needed to invade the cabin and disable the security. Then he cloned the transponder signal and launched a drone sending the false signal here." Happy completed.

"Have they found the black boxes?"

"Yes. They're being examined in the lab."

"And this man...Toomes. What happened to him?"

"He was arrested by the FBI. The kid tied him with the boxes, before the Damage Control arrive. All cargo, destroyed or not, was recovered. I made the count myself, more than once."

"I checked the count. And we were lucky that the kid collect everything before looters arrived." Pepper gave back the starkpad. "I just don't understand how he knew of Toomes plans, and why he didn't warn you."

So the man opened and closed his mouth in a sequence, not knowing how to respond.

"Happy…" The woman got angrier, knowing that she wouldn't like of what she would hear next:

"A friend of his tried to warn me; but I thought it was just another chit-chat and…"

"What!?" Pepper exploded.

"It wasn't the first time!" Tony informed. "I checked the conversations between the two. He ignores the kid since the beginning."

"This is not entirely true!"

"Are you telling me that all this time you have ignored the kid when we asked you specifically to take care of him?" She asked angrily.

"I was watching him! But He was annoying me all the time!"

"He's a teenager! Teenagers annoy! You're the adult, you should have shown some responsibility!" Tony joined the sermon. "What were you thinking? That now that you're working for the Avengers, you were superior to everyone and the simple kid from Queens didn't deserve your attention? Didn't deserve your precious time?"

"Are you aware of the situation we would be in if the kid hadn't prevented the hijacking? The situation we are in? Situation that could have been avoided if you had not ignored him?"

"I know! I'm sorry!"

"Apologies are not gonna change anything!" Pepper and Tony said at the same time, making Happy lowered his head and face his shoes, like a child being rebuked by his parents.

"Will you demote me?"

"Demote? We should fire you, Happy!" Tony looked disappointed.

"But we won't." Pepper completed.

"What?" The two men stared at her, surprised.

"But don't think I'm doing this because we're friends. I'm doing this because of the kid. Because if the cargo was stolen, just because you and your ego ignored his and his friend's warnings, you would be going to the HR right now!" She pointed to the door, then softened her tone. "So you can keep the job…"

"Thank you."

"I've not finished yet."

"Sorry."

"You can keep the job. But you'll still have to look after the kid, this time for real. I want you to take care of him the way you took care of me. And if I hear that you're still ignoring him, you'll be lucky if you only get demoted."

"Yes, boss."

"And there's more: I want you to apologize to him. It's the least you can do after having your ass and job saved by him."

"Yes, boss."

"Now get out of my way, before I change my mind."

"Yes, boss." Happy repeated. Then he walked away, with his tail between his legs.

"I love when you turn on the bad boss mood. It's hot." Tony commented, extremely horny.

"Don't start, please…" The woman asked; then walked into the kitchen, followed by the man.

"How were your vacations?"

"Interrupted. But they were good, while they lasted." She turned on the coffee machine, knowing that she would need a good amount of the drink to stay awake in that early morning.

"You're tanned… Must have gone to the beach. It's almost November, spring in half of the planet. You were with our jet, and it took nine hours to you to get here; so with a common plane, it would have taken around 14 hours. So…" Tony quickly did the counts. "Where in South America were you?"

"Uruguay."

"I would guess Brazil." He leaned against the counter, watching her prepare the drink.

"We need to thank the kid."

"I know. And I know exactly how to do this." Tony took his phone out of his pocket and made the gesture of throw something in the air. So a hologram of a project of a new Spider-Man suit appeared at his side. "Friday is producing it right now. I'll invite him to be part of the Avengers, and I need you to hold a press conference on Monday. After school, of course. I don't want him to miss class."

"Wow…" She said, studying the hologram.

"That's all? 'Wow'? No complaints or screams?"

"Well, he's still just a child. But what he did yesterday, and in D.C, showed that he is capable. With training, he can be of great help."

"I'll take care of it."

"But don't forget that he's just a 15 years old kid."

"I won't." Tony put the phone back on his pocket, and then the hologram disappeared.

…

Everyone worked hard throughout the weekend. Still early Saturday, after the FBI released the scene of the incident, a load airplane left the compound, this time with Happy inside the vehicle and Rhodes outside, personally monitoring all the way. They returned mid-morning, with all the load safe.

Tony spent most of his time in the lab, monitoring the progress of Spider-Man's new suit, checking the black boxes of the plane, resolving the flaws in the security system and fixing everything that was damaged in the incident, including Dum-E, U, and Mark 42.

And Pepper called a lot of journalists (not bloggers) to the press conference. She organized the event and ensured that the guests could reach which was located in a area very distant from the population. And, of course, she made sure that the "big announcement" as Tony called, were not interrupted by something like a certain red guy who had the bad habit of not respecting doors and walls.

On Monday, everything was ready. A few hours before the press conference, Happy went to the Queens and caught Peter at school, taking advantage of the moment to apologize. He was ordered to do it, but his words were from heart.

Meanwhile, Pepper tried to control the situation at the Avengers compound, which was full of journalists waiting eager for the big announcement:

"So, he's coming or not?" A journalist asked, after more than half hour of delay.

"Mr. Stark will be here any minute." Pepper repeated, not knowing what else to say to stalling them. After all, she couldn't just say that Spider-Man was a simple teenager, who also went to school and probably had to stay late in class, had to make a geography work, got in detention or something.

But there came a moment that even she got tired of waiting. So she excused herself, left the stage with elegance and walked to the door, which was opened by one of her bodyguards, and led to the room next door, where Tony would be presenting the kid his new suit.


	29. Chapter 29

Pepper returned to the auditorium complaining internally, since she couldn't reveal in loud voice, to all those journalists, what had just happened on the other side of the door.

She felt that Tony followed her quickly, but she didn't look back. Just walked on to the stage and scratched her neck, before start to talk:

"Good afternoon. First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay. There were some setbacks, but now we can proceed with the announcement that Mr. Stark came to make. Well, I won't stay here stalling you even more; So I'll go straight to the point. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to call to the stage... Tony Stark.

Then the journalists received the man with applause, until he took over the microphones, when they fell silent.

"Thank you, Miss. Potts." Tony watched her get off the stage with a serene look, hiding the fact that he was burning into emotions in the inside. Her image brought him peace, but it was replaced by the nervous, when he faced the rest of the audience.

"Well, I …"

"Is that about the hijacking attempt of the airplane carrying the Avengers' belongings and weapons?"

"To whom did you sell the Avengers Tower?"

"Did you find Captain America and his gang?"

"Will you invite the Spider-Man from YouTube to join the Avengers?"

"Actually I didn't come here to talk about any of these topics." Tony lied. His first intention was to announce Spider-Man as the newest member of the Avengers, indeed.

"Are you and Miss. Potts back together?" A journalist in the background caught his attention.

"Why do you think that?" Stark asked seriously, ignoring the other questions.

"I just guess."

"Oh, you just guess?" He repeated, looking furious.

At that moment there was silence in the auditorium. All guests were frightened by the dark look that Stark directed to the journalist, who swallowed hard. And the climate of tension remained until, after a dramatic pause, the man on stage chuckled and broke the frown:

"You're good. Yes, we're back." He smiled at the journalist, who sighed in relief.

Then the flashes started to blink even more, all the journalists started to speak at the same time, the place became a cauldron. Everyone knew that Stark would make a big announcement, but they were not waiting for that.

"But it wasn't just because of that that I came here. No…" Tony became serious again, and waited for the crowd to calm down. "I wanna tell a story. Miss. Potts, could you approach, please?" He asked, then watched the woman take the stage, knowing that she was mentally counting to ten (or one thousand), trying not to strangle him.

"I still think I can thing in something better than…"

"Game over, you have already said yes. Now it's done." He interrupted her whispers, before taking courage and begin to speak in front of the microphones:

"Back to 2008, when I was in that cave, Dr. Yinsen and I had a talk about getting out of that place and going back to those who were waiting for us. He told me about his family and asked if I had someone waiting for me out there, if I had someone to come back to. I was about to say no, when I realized that yes, I had someone to back to: That's you." He looked in her eye to say. "That day I started to find out what I really felt for you; and I promised myself that, one day, if I could get out of that cave, and I would do; So I would declare myself to you. So I escaped from the cave and got this ring…" Tony lifted the object and journalists got excited, knowing what was coming next. "And I asked Happy to always carry it around; because at any moment I could do what I'm about to do, and I'd need it. Well...it took almost 10 years...but I'm finally doing it." He knelt. "So in front of all these people, because you know I love an audience…" Everyone in the room laughed, including Pepper, who wasn't containing herself and showed a huge smile upon her face. "I'll ask: Pepper. Virginia. That's your real name, right?" Everyone laughed again, and Tony looked at the audience:

"I'm kidding! It was a joke, I know her name…" He returned to look at the woman in front of him. "It's Virginia, right?"

"Yes…"

"Okay. Where was I?"

"You were proposing me." Pepper replied serious.

"Oh! Right. So…" He cleared his throat, assuming a serious pose. "Virginia. My love...my someone to come back to, my reason for living. My rock, my shield, my parachute, God, how bad I am at this…" The journalists laughed, but Tony and Pepper, stuck in the moment, didn't even hear them. "I'm a pain in the ass, you know that more than anyone. But I love you. And I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

Then the audience was consumed by silence.

All stared at Pepper, who didn't take her eyes off Tony's. The man, still on his knees, couldn't move a single part of his body, not even to breathe. And so he remained, until he heard the words coming out of her thin lips:

"Of course I do…"

"Phew!" He let his breath get out in relief, his body finally relaxing. "That was harder than I thought!" He ignored the laughter of the audience and held Pepper's hand, putting the ring on her finger. Then the woman pulled him, so he could stand up and she could kiss him on the lips with passion, but also with discretion; after all, they were in front of dozens of people and cameras.

"So? I did well?" Tony asked quietly, amid the applause.

"You did very well, Mr. Stark. But I still can't believe you told Happy to carry the ring in his pocket for nearly 10 years…"

"I was waiting for the right moment!"

"10 years!"

"Hey, better late than ne…" Tony was interrupted by another kiss.

"I love you, you huge idiot." Pepper said with a huge smile on her face.

"I love you too…" He said, still sort of bewildered. "Hey, how about we get out of here?"

"What about the press conference?"

"We just broke everything here. They won't want to hear anything else."

"You might be right, but what about Peter? He's waiting in the car…"

"Happy will take him home. He won't be needed for what we're gonna do, anyway…" Tony leered. So Pepper smiled and pulled him off the stage.


	30. Chapter 30

"I can't believe you actually used our relationship to quiet the journalists!" She complained, after they left the auditorium.

"Quiet? We set that room on fire! And plus, we couldn't send them home empty-handed! They came from really far away to hear a big announcement; we had to give them a big announc..." Tony was interrupted by a kiss.

"I missed you…" Pepper said, with her lips glued to his.

"I missed you too…" He caressed the side of her thighs. And when the kiss ended, he lifted a hand up to her face and started to caress there with his indicator. "Is this actually happening?"

"I hope so…" She said, also not believing. Then she slipped her hand to his chest, starting to face the huge ring on her finger.

"Did you like it?" Tony asked, noticing what she was looking at. "If you didn't, I can...well...I can't change it, since the period ended nearly 10 years ago. But I can buy ano…"

"I loved." She interrupted. "Really."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes."

"So… No steps backwards?"

"Definitely not."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Absolutely sure?"

"I'll marry you, Tony."

"You know me, I'm a pain in the ass. I'm giving you a chance; Won't you change your mind?"

"No."

"Do you really wanna do this?"

"Yes, and you?"

"Absolutely."

"So let's do this…" Pepper kissed him again, with a huge smile. "Hmm…"

"What?" Tony asked, still during the kiss. Then the woman pulled away and looked into his eyes.

"Do you have any commitment...?"

"Hmm...no. I was serious when I suggested sex before. I'm totally free."

"Great... so I could call the hotel where I was staying and make a new check-in…" She suggested in a sensual way, holding the collar of his shirt.

"Great idea…" Tony said and kissed her again, then remembered of something. "Peter…"

"What did you call me!?" The woman complained, pushing him away from her.

"A…a…"

"Are you kidding me!?"

"Calm down, it's not what you're thinking!" Tony immediately warned her. "I just remembered I have to do something before the trip. I'll be quick, I promise." He stole a kiss, before starting to walk backwards. "So... I'll meet you in the jet? OK? Great! I love you!" He said extremely happy, and then turned his back to her, hurriedly walking to the stairs. The woman smiled and nodded, before continuing her way.

Once he got in the lab, Tony wrote a message to Peter Parker in a paper bag; and then put the Spider-Man suit inside it. So he entered into an armor and personally took the gift to Queens, leaving it in the kid's bed. Then he returned to the compound the fastest he could.

He found Pepper near the jet, speaking Spanish on the phone and watching employees carry some bags (certainly with his belongings, as she always thought of everything) to the luggage rack. Then he hugged her from behind and started distributing bites on her neck, knowing that she would be embarrassed, because of the presence of the employees.

"Nos vemos en unas horas. Muchisimas gracias…" Pepper said, before closing the connection. "Can you not...?" She pushed him shyly.

"I knew you'd do this!" He smiled.

"Then why did you do that?"

"Because I wanted to make you flush. See? You're flushed! I love when you're flushed!" Tony admired the woman with a huge smile on his face, as she stared straight ahead, trying to contain herself. But a shy smile escaped from her lips, and Tony admired it, until the employees finished putting the luggage on board. So he held her hand, and together they walked to the jet.

Shortly thereafter, they were flying. And after that was allowed, the two removed their belts. Then Tony pulled the woman's hand, and she left herself being carried away, ending up on his lap.

They exchanged a desperate kiss, urgently. And totally different from the past ones, once that time they were completely alone.

Finally, they started to kill every longing that consumed them in recent months. But there was too much nostalgia for the little air in their lungs; so before the desired, they were forced to end the kiss.

Their lips parted, but their bodies kept as glued as possible. And the couple exchanged caresses with eyes closed, foreheads touching, and heavy breathing. Until then they opened their eyes; and Pepper was the first to speak:

"What did you had to do? It's everything alright?"

"Everything is fine." Tony guaranteed, not daring to take his hands off her waist. "I was taking the kid's suit to his house. I only did it personally as a precaution. We don't want another event like that with the plane."

"Never again, please…" Pepper closed her eyes and groaned when Tony started to kiss her neck. "So now you're all mine?" She asked seductively, pressing his shoulders.

"Almost." He said. Then interrupted the caresses and gave stubs in the electronic point in his ear. "Friday? Are you there?"

"Of course I am; where else would I be?" She replied rudely.

"Great. Could you do me a favor?"

"Of course. What can I do for you, boss?"

"Please don't let anything or anyone bother me and Miss. Potts for the next hours. Or rather: days."

"Copy that."

"Great. Because that also includes you." He said and removed the communicator, putting it in a pocket of his jacket. Then he took off his glasses and threw them into a nearby seat, before facing the woman with a naughty look and smile. "Where were we?"

Pepper then matched the smile and brought her lips to his, just moving away when lacked air into herr lungs. While recovering his breath, Tony started tracing kisses on her neck.

"So... what are you gonna do with the kid, now that he refused your invite?" She asked breathlessly.

"I'm sure he's prepared to go by himself." Tony stopped with the kissing. "But I'll keep being around, giving him some advices and, eventually, some help with his suit. And also there's Happy, that, now that got scolded, will take care of him as he never did before." He paused. "He'll be fine."

"And what you're gonna do now? With you?" Pepper asked, caressing the back of his neck.

"Keep doing therapy. I may need the BARF a few more times."

"What else?" She asked, starting to play with the collar of his shirt.

"Marry you as soon as possible. And then, for the rest of my life, I'll work hard to ensure that you'll never ask for divorce. I've been without you for already too long. I wouldn't bear to go through that again…" Then the woman watched him in silence. "What?"

"You look so much more…"

"Handsome?" He suggested with a smile.

"And the ego is still in the heights, isn't it?" Pepper smiled, and the man shrugged. "I was gonna say 'responsible'."

"Yeah, the latest events may have done this to me." He clenched his lips, and the woman looked directly at them, two seconds before returning to look him in the eyes.

"We need to talk...about us."

"Now?"

"Yes." Pepper was firm, and Tony complained in silence. "We need to know... what we're gonna do now."

"What do you suggest?"

"Well...we tried the mid-term, and it didn't work. We tried to take a break and…"

"That went terribly wrong."

"That went terribly wrong." Pepper repeated his words. "And this brings us to the last option…"

"No." Tony immediately said, knowing what she would say. "That would be very dangerous."

"I've been working with the Avengers all this time…"

"It's different!"

"What is different?" She asked, and Tony freezed for a while, trying to think of an answer.

"It doesn't matter! Pep, I can't put your life in danger!"

"What do you mean? Tony, this is not like I'm going to war with you! I mean..if you guys need me, fine. But until then, I'll just keep doing what I already do: Solve the paperwork, talk to you guys and find out if you need something, provide all that is necessary, deal with lawyers and the press…"

"The boring job."

"You know I love my job…" She replied; and he was silent a few seconds. Then he sighed.

"Being too close can be dangerous. But, once you'll be close to the team, there will be always someone to protect you. Or to you to protect. Let's face it: you've saved the Avengers' life more times than the Avengers saved yours. You've saved my life more than anyone." Tony looked full of gratitude at the woman, who smiled. "It will be better for all of us if you stay around. So... welcome to the Avengers. More than you already are... " He put a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"Thank you..." Pepper smiled, caressing his chest. "We're gonna make this work, okay?"

"Uhum..." Tony replied, already thinking of ways to keep her safe. "As we got on this subject: you could wear my suits sometimes, hum? You were really sexy when you wore Mark 42, a few years ago."

"I'll think about it…" She leered, then caressed his hair. "I love you."

"I love you." Tony said and kissed her hand, close to the ring. "Okay, we talked about us. What next?" He asked.

So the woman smiled and pulled his face to her.

…

Pepper unlocked the hotel suite door with difficulty, as Tony kept kissing, caressing and squeezing her body in the right places. When she finally succeeded, she pushed him inside and gave a look in the hallway, before closing and locking the door. Then she was pulled by the waist, continuing from where they had stopped:

Her hands wandered by Tony's body, and she noticed that he was already without his jacket.

Good.

Better for her.

Tony took off the woman's shirt effortlessly. Then he kissed her belly, up towards the breasts. Until she pulled his head and stifled a groan with a kiss. Groan that that was followed by others, once Tony's face left her bust, but his hands didn't. And they did a great job, caressing and squeezing the places he knew she liked.

Pepper undid his tie and threw it anywhere before kicking her heels out of her feet and step on the tips of the shoes of the man, who understood the message and took the feet off the shoes. Then she pulled him by his shirt, until they fell on the bed. Tony was startled by the fall, because he didn't know where each mobile was, but soon he began to laugh, restarting to stick his lips to hers.

Pepper unbuttoned his shirt easily, but Tony couldn't say the same of her skirt. He tried to find the closure, but soon gave up. So he began to pull it down, and if it ripped, fuck it. Just buy another one.

The woman raised her hips, helping his work, and as he went down with the skirt, she pulled his shirt.

They threw the clothes away, so Tony stood on top of Pepper. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Then she made the two of them roll in the bed, so she could be on top.

Pepper kissed and bit his neck as she shaked her body over the clothes that were left, wanting more contact. Tony groaned, proving that the feeling was mutual.

She slided down a hand and took off his belt, invading his pants soon after. Tony swore and she laughed, starting to kiss him while masturbating him. He dropped his hands to her ass and squeezed, noticing that there was still a piece of clothing in her body. Then he started to pull her panties down, and Pepper stopped what she was doing to get off the bed and get rid of it. Then she pulled his pants, along with his underpants and socks.

So there was nothing to keep them away of each other.

She came back to him and kissed his lips. He hugged her and sat them. And the two connected their bodies, moaning on the lips of the other.

Their bodies seemed to be electrocuted, and at the same time relaxed, for finally being together, embedded in the place they seemed to have been born to belong.

They moved without haste, enjoying every second. Kissing, biting and caressing each place that they reached of the other's body, saying their names and 'I love you' all the time. Until they exploded in ecstasy, containing themselves to groan not too loud, Since they were in a hotel in which soundproofing system shouldn't be that good.

They didn't dare to separate their bodies, not even a inch. They just stayed there, connected and exchanging quick kisses while recovering.

The last few months have been sad, lonely. They suffered greatly from the absence of the other. But nothing lasts forever. And the hard times between the two had finally finished.

"I'm glad we're back," They said at the same time.

"I love you." Pepper said smiling, caressing his hair.

"I love you…" Tony said, as he ran his fingertips gently around the contours of her face, feeling as good as he hadn't felt for years.

Everything was perfect.

But Thanos was getting closer.

The end.


End file.
